1. An I-Pod For The Financially Challenged?

It is now four years since Creative Labs invented the Jukebox player with a hard drive. This major innovation completely changed the way we accessed our music. Credit where credit is due, their mobile CD library gave a great boost to digital music on the move, so you can understand why they are miffed about their rather poor sales and especially about the success of a rival product which offers less for more money. The trouble is, Creative ignored a basic factor the apple people reminded them of, which is that a leisure item has to have sex appeal. The i-Pod has style and that means it gets flashed around even though it costs more and does less.

So Creative has now dropped the Jukebox design considered as too bulky and short on finish in favor of a product which is sexier but no dearer. In with the new NX version of the Zen offering us all ergonomics, mobility and style.