Okay, my turn. My mom suddenly wants an MP3 player. In terms of capacity, she has maybe 25 CDs she listens to regularly now, so I'm thinking something in the 2gb or 4gb range would be fine. An iPod Nano is the obvious choice, but at $179/$229 for 2gb/4gb (with .edu discount) might be a bit more than she wants to pay.

What I'm wondering is, are there any other players at a bit lower of a price point that still compete with the Nano in terms of user-friendliness, sound quality, etc. She doesn't care about cross-fading, but I think she'd appreciate gapless playback, which the iPods don't have

I know she can handle the iTunes interface, and could probably handle something slightly less intuitive from a competitor, provided there are really good reasons for making that concesion (a significant price difference, etc.)

So, what else is in the Nano's league that's worth looking into?