The Sansa e280 features eight gigabytes of flash-based memory expandable to 10 gigabytes, which translates into the potential to store as many as 2,500 songs.

SanDisk said its latest addition to the Sansa e200 line of MP3 players would be in US stores by September 8 and rolled out worldwide shortly thereafter.

The Milpitas, California, company priced its new player at 249.99 dollars, putting it in a price bracket with iPod Nanos offering about half the music-storing capacity.

Flash-memory is made of tiny hardware that enables MP3 players such as the Nano and the e280 to be made sleek, small, and light.

Apple's larger iPod MP3 players use hard drives to offer as much as 60 gigabytes of storage and come with price tags of up to 399 dollars.

Along with unveiling the e280, SanDisk announced cuts of 40 to 60 dollars in the prices of Sansa flash-based MP3 models introduced this spring.

The new price for the two-gigabyte Sansa e250 model was 139.99 dollars; the four-gigabyte e260 was 179.99 dollars, and the six-gigabyte e270 was 219.99.

"SanDisk is once again making it incredibly affordable for consumers to purchase the most feature-rich, high-capacity players on the market at the best possible price," said Eric Bone, director of audio/video product marketing at SanDisk.

"The most costly ingredient in a flash-based MP3 player is the flash memory. Since we make the flash memory, we essentially remove the middleman and pass that savings directly to the consumer."

The e280 players were built to accommodate removable memory cards that could increase storage capacity to 10 gigabytes.

The cards can be switched into music-capable mobile telephones or other devices, taking chosen songs with them.

Sansa e280 features includes the ability to download digitized entertainment from an array of sources including Microsoft PlaysForSure and Rhapsody To Go, according to the company.

Apple Computer links its iPod models exclusively to the Cupertino, California, company's iTunes online store.

Sansa e280 also has an FM radio tuner and could be used as a voice or radio recorder, the company said.

SanDisk describes itself as the inventor of flash storage cards and the world's largest supplier of flash data storage card products.

The company was iPod's top US rival and the Sansa line of MP3 players had 9.7 percent of the market in the second fiscal quarter of 2006, according to The NPD Group research firm.

Apple commands 75.6 percent of the MP3 player market, while Creative Labs and Samsung respectively hold 4.3 and 2.5 percent, NPD reported.

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