The iPhone may have been getting most of the attention for much of 2007, but for the rivals of Apple's iPod, the year's big story is the scorching sales of its Nano and Shuffle players.

Sansa Clip

Apple sent out invitations to a Sept. 5 media event today, sending the rumor mill into a tizzy and pushing Apple's shares up nearly 5 percent on the day on the possibility of a new line of iPods.

But hoping to beat their dominant rival to the punch, both SanDisk and Creative have unveiled tiny digital media players that look to challenge Apple's popular Nano and Shuffle players.

SanDisk kicked off the week by announcing its new Sansa Clip player, which is similar to the Shuffle, in that it has a detachable clip and can therefore be easily worn. The thumb-sized player comes in storage capacities of 1GB and 2GB, has an FM radio (with recorder), microphone, mp3/wma player, and OLED display.

The 1GB Clip will cost $40, half the price of Apple's Shuffle, and the 2GB version will cost $60. The Sansa Clip comes in black, candy apple red, hot pink, and ice blue, although the 1GB model is only available in black.

"Don't let the Sansa Clip's size fool you," SanDisk's Keith Washo said in a statement. "This tiny player packs a powerful, feature-rich punch. We're excited to bring music lovers a new, cool-looking player with great sound and audio offerings in a body that's smaller than a matchbox."

Creative Zen

While SanDisk has remained in second place for MP3-player market share, Creative has struggled to keep Apple in sight. But with its new Creative Zen, the company hopes to do the Nano one better, reducing its popular Zen Vision:M to the size of an iPod Nano but maintaining the 2.5-inch display screen.

The Zen will come in capacities of 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB of flash. An SD slot will give Creative an advantage by expanding storage by another 2GB. The Zen will also support FM radio and all the video formats of the larger Zen Vision:M.

The Zen will debut Friday at the IFA show in Berlin and will be available in the US at prices of $150, $200, and $300 for the 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB editions, respectively, when they ship in September.