Creative to be first with 32GB flash jukebox?

Creative may be the first mainstream portable media player producer to offer a flash-based jukebox with 32GB of memory, based on an unintentional slip-up on the company's website for its home country of Singapore. An entry for the Creative ZEN shows a 32GB version of the handheld alongside the usual 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB versions. This would potentially supply as many as 8,000 standard-quality songs despite the device's small size using Creative's estimates.

Other elements of the company page are consistent and provide no signs of a change to the ZEN, which is thin compared to traditional hard disk players and sports an SD card slot to add as much as 2GB more to the total storage capacity. If supported by a future announcement, the 32GB version will represent a technical achievement; current devices with 16GB or more of flash memory are often heavily constrained by size, as the memory chips must often consume valuable space and frequently command a price premium over devices with similarly sized hard disks. The 16GB ZEN sells for $449 Singapore dollars, or roughly $300 US.

The accidental posting may also suggest that 16-gigabit (4 gigabyte) NAND flash memory may be closer to full-scale production than originally thought, as both Samsung and Toshiba have promised the ultra-dense memory for use by late this year but typically require a small delay before products based on the technology actually ship. [via epiZENter]