Reports: Dell Exits MP3 Player Business

After announcing in February that it would no longer produce hard-drive based MP3 players, Dell has apparently also exited the flash-based music player business as well. Rumors of the Dell Ditty's demise began to circulate after the Shuffle rival was absent from the company's August catalog, and as of Wednesday afternoon, Dell-branded players were gone its online store.

Dell had been in the MP3 player market since 2003, but as never gained any appreciable share. User reports on Dell-owned forums indicated the players were available online for as low as $39 before selling out. With the exit of Dell, only four major players in the Windows-based digital music player industry remain: market-leader SanDisk, followed by Creative, Samsung and Sony, which recently added WMA support to its devices.