The mp3 fan now has a new friend in Virgin. Virgin Electronics unveiled on Tuesday a digital audio player with a 5GB hard disk, in a bid to penetrate the market dominated by Apple Computer's iPod.

The $249 Virgin Player, weighing 3.1 ounces, supports MP3 and WMA music formats and is capable of working with various digital music services, the company said. The 5GB Virgin Player includes an FM tuner. The device has separate buttons for volume, skipping to the next song, and pausing the music, and features the ability to create playlists. The storage is sufficient for 1,200 MP3 songs. Apple's iPod Mini proves fewer songs for the same price.

Virgin said support for open standards such as WMA will let people select the music service of their choice. The device comes bundled with the company's music software and service, Virgin Digital, which sells song downloads for 99 cents, or monthly subscriptions for $7.99.

The company also announced a new line of portable speakers that work with the player.

Both the player and the speakers are set for release later this month.

Software, hardware and consumer electronics companies currently dominate the online music market. But Virgin Electronics, the electronics arm within the Virgin Group, hopes to take advantage of being part of an offline music retailing giant.