Samsung is about to get back in the MP3 player battle with their new Z5 device.

Not just any run of the mill iPod knockoff, the Z5 wants to be taken seriously as an iPod competitor. This is because Samsung hired Paul Mercer, a 38 ear old Apple Macintosh veteran software designer to design the software for the player.
Mercer also founded Pixo Inc., the company Apple turned to in the creation of the original iPod interface.

It seems that Samsung is really taking things seriously, they have new, never before seen software for their player, and the device also boasts a innovative new control method that is like a click-wheel only square.

"Samsung is betting that it can win a share of the music market dominated by Apple by using new software that mimics what is found in powerful PC's," John Markoff reports for The New York Times. "The Z5, shaped like a stick of gum, has a 1.8-inch color screen and a 35-hour battery life, and is priced at $199 to $249 to compete with the iPod Nano, which costs $149 to $249. Early reviews have been positive, and Samsung is hoping that the Z5 will work smoothly with the range of subscription music services that support the Microsoft PlaysForSure digital music standard."

The fact that the manufacturer is hoping the device will work with PlaysForSure says a lot. So far, SanDisk is the only company that is actually seriously trying to will the MP3 player market that is still not under the iPod's grasp, while everybody else is just building iPod knockoffs and thinking that they will for some reason sell better than the real thing.