BenQ is planning to launch a new hard drive-based digital media player later this year, the company said.

The player will contain a 4GB hard drive and accepts SD (Secure Digital) memory cards, says Noriyuki Kitamura, a product manager for digital audio products at BenQ Japan. On its front panel is a TFT LCD panel with a touch-sensitive control panel.

It will support playback of MP3, Windows Media Audio, and WAV format audio files and JPEG images, says Kitamura. It will go on sale worldwide in December and will cost around $300, he says.