Sandisk will today introduce an 8GB Flash-based digital music player, launching the device ahead of the anticipated roll-out of an 8GB iPod Nano from Apple. Sandisk will also slash the price of this Flash-based MP3 player, it has been claimed.

The 8GB Sansa e280 will retail in the US for around $250 - the same price as the 4GB iPod Nano. Sandisk currently offers a 6GB digital music player, the e270, for $280, suggesting that machine will come down in price when the e280 ships.

Sandisk's 4GB digital music player, the e260, is already $20 cheaper than the same-sized iPod Nano. Yet it hasn't dented Apple's US market share. For the first six months of 2006, Apple took 76.6 per cent of the US retail MP3 player market, compared to number two placed Sandisk's 8.9 per cent.

Rumours that Apple is preparing to launch - possibly in the current quarter - higher capacity iPod Nanos have been flying since February.

The 2GB e250 digital music player now retails for $140, the e260 digital music player for $180 and the e270 digital music player for $220.

Like the existing e250, the e280 will incorporate a memory card slot to boost MP3 player's storage capacity further, and we're hearing whispers that the company is planning to launch a device designed to make it easier to get non-music content onto its MP3 players via memory card. Since Sandisk's real business is selling memory cards, this makes sense, and it could do a lot worse than offer a product like Neuros Audio's MPEG 4 Recorder... ®