Two New iPod Shuffle Competitors?

Nate Elliott posts at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs about two new Flash-based MP3 players that just might give the Apple iPod Shuffle a run for its money: the Sony Walkman Bean and the Samsung YP-U1.

Elliott writes the two companies have learned from Apple that design and branding matters, although he does ding Samsung on the latter for its less than catchy YP-U1 name, which doesn't exactly roll off your tongue.

"The next lesson, hopefully, will be that software matters. If Sony, Samsung, et al can learn that lesson, maybe this market will get competitive. But for now there's finally some promise on the horizon for the iPod-wannabes."