LAS VEGAS, the United States, Jan. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Digital Media Group, a licensee of Polaroid Corporation, unveiled Thursday a line of MP3 players that are similar to Apple's popular iPods in both the sleek appearance and the huge storage capacity.

    Showcasing its MP3 players at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show opened here today, Digital Media Group said its Polaroid Juke Jam HDD Digital Jukebox Players combine MP3, WMA andFM tuner with voice recording capability, portable hard disk drivestorage and direct MP3 encoding, all in one unit.

    The company's Juke Jam players are available in 20, 30 or 40GB memory options, capable of holding thousands of MP3 or WMA files. They also feature a USB 2.0 for super-fast downloads, an easy to use file navigation system, and have multi-language capability including English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

    Digital Media Group said additional features of its Juke Jam include sleep and standby timer settings, backlight time settings,date/time functions, and a rechargeable Li-On battery with approximately 8 hours playing time.

    The player is also sleek in design, boasting an extra large backlit LCD display. It is also PC and Mac compatible. The major difference between a Juke Jam and an iPod may be the price. Digital Media Group said its Juke Jam players start at approximately 299 US dollars, while an iPod with 20 GB storage capacity now sells for 399 dollars.

    With Digital Media Group's Juke Jam players on the market, Apple will face a real challenge in the lucrative MP3 player market. Enditem