The Nomad's Future

The future of Nomad

Even though the product hasn't shipped yet, Creative is already looking forward to the next evolutionary step of the product. A USB cradle is in development, and will be smaller and lighter, offering faster transfers than what is available over the standard parallel port.

The "Nomad 2" (our words, not theirs) will be fully SSFDC-compliant, allowing for the use of standard-format flash cards, including support for file transfer via PC-card readers, floppy drive adapters, and more (how this will hang with the RIAA we will have to see). The next Nomad is also planned to be "codec agnostic," conforming to whatever SDMI standard is finalized.

These new devices won't be available until the end of the year, and pricing of course has yet to be determined.

Where can I find the Nomad?

The Nomad will begin shipping this month (Creative's press releases indicate 2nd Quarter 1999). The 32MB version will sell for US$169.99, and the 64MB version will sell for US$249.99. If you've got a digital camera, you can get the 64MB Nomad and share the 32MB card between the two devices (or vice versa)!