Polaroid Produces PMPs, Cheap with WiFi

Now that Polaroid is nothing more than a name since the original company went bankrupt and sold it all to Bank One, it should not surprise you that they make a living off of name licensing and branding. What should surprise you however, is that Polaroid, an name associated with photos (and more recently televisions) is entering the portable media market, with the announcements of the MPA-20011, MPA-28216, and MPA-43315, the latter two of which are WiFi enabled. More details after the jump.

The MPA-20011 will be the first of the three to hit the market, shipping in March for around $100. In addition to your usual MP3s, WMAs and JPEGs, the device is capable of playing MPEG4 and WMV videos, and offers expansion above it's 1GB capacity through the use of Micro SD cards. With all that and a 25 hour battery life, we can overlook the blackberry-esque scroll wheel.

The MPA-28216 brings a little more beef to the table, with a 30GB hard drive and 2.8" LCD, as well as support for all that the MPA-20011 offers plus AVI videos and DRM11-protected downloads. The optional WiFi also provides a means of legally downloading music, as well as connecting to Polaroid's DEC1000 media center. Shipping starts in fall for about $250, $280 with WiFi.