If initial Wall Street Journal reports are to be believed, Dell is busy readying a new brand of MP3 players to renew the iPod battle. That's not all, they could be on sale as early as September, barely a month from now!

This is not the first time Dell has ventured into the music market. Back in 2003, Dell had launched the Dell Digital Jukebox or just Dell DJ with a little help from the folks at Creative. These players were based on the same hardware and software platform as the Creative NOMAD/Creative Zen digital audio players. The dream run lasted three years till August 24, 2006, when Dell decided to pull the plug and production was stopped.

Fast forward to 2008, Dell seems to be in a mood to take on the likes of the iPod again. With the likes of Microsoft and Sony having tried and failed to pip Apple from the numero uno perch, it would be interesting to note what strategy Dell has in store. For starters, Dell is working on software for a range of portable PCs that will let users download and organize music and movies from various online sources. This is different from what it had done earlier - where it simply acted as hardware tied to some music service.

The music player which Dell has been testing features a small navigation screen and basic button controls to scroll through music playlists. It would connect to online music services via a Wi-Fi, and Dell would likely price the model at less than $100.

Source: Reuters