Yes though the article's not entirely clear on why. Interesting that Nano soaking up flash units is causing smaller players in market to fall over due to lack of flash available. Since most work on much less than 4 gig I would presume Samsung has shifted to 4 gig and not producing much smaller stuff. Competitors therefore might either step up to producing the same level of flash, or seek to meet demand for lower levels 512kb etc. If the former bang for buck might jump considerably next year. If the latter the price drop might be less than historically.

As far as usb mp3 players go I think most people probably don't use more than 512kb (about 6-7hrs worth of music) or they are very serious and need at least 20gig ipod because they want it all on hand.

I think the best bargains are no-name 256 and 512kbs players that come with voice recorders (usually at least 12 hrs worth at best quality), play wmv as well, and sometimes have built in radios, and of course can carry downloaded mp3 radio programs. They certainly don't support crap like digital rights management. These can be had on ebay for as little as $50 delivered to Australia for the 256kb version.

The most important functionality once you reach 512, and certainly 1 gig, is usb2 speed, which remains rare. The other issue, thiness, if you want to slot it straight into a port and fit something into the port next door!

Also, as this $50 price point becomes available in Australian stores, expect them to become big items as presents to kids, ones that don't entail the same parental anguish when they disappear from schoolbags etc as a $250+ item would. Watch out this Christmas.