Walt Disney Co. plans to introduce its own portable video and audio player aimed at kids between 9 and 13, known as tweens. The device plays music and movies stored on either its hard drive or a
memory card. Disney Chief Bob Iger is expected to introduce the new device, called the "Mix Max," today in New York. Tweens covet adult gizmos, like iPods and cell phones, without being quite old
enough to have them. So Disney, the undisputed king of the tween market, thinks there's a sizable untapped market there. They may be right. At $99, the Mix Max is not as expensive as an iPod or a cell
phone plan, and it could be a good first media device for parents to buy for their kids. The Mix Max, set to be released in October, has a 2.5-inch color screen and holds six hours of video or about
240 songs. Users will be able to download music and videos from sites like Yahoo and Napster, but not Apple's closed-off iTunes. Disney also plans to sell its own movies for $20 on memory sticks that
can be inserted into the device. That, by the way, is twice as much as Apple is selling for certain movies on the video iPod. We should assume that the device isn't Wi-Fi-enabled because it wasn't in
the report. One wonders how long Disney thinks a media device that requires memory sticks and isn't Web-enabled will last in the fast-moving digital world. In less than two years, mobile devices will
significantly ramp up both storage and network capacity, possibly eliminating the need for memory sticks, DVDs and CDs.
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