How the mighty have fallen. Creative once again cut prices on its (actually quite good) Zen portable line in an attempt to offer the best value next to That Other Portable MP3 Player Company, Reuters reports.

Here's the new rundown:

- The 4GB Zen is now just $99 (compared with $149 for Apple's 4GB iPod Nano).

- The 8GB Zen is now $149 (compared with $199 for the 8GB iPod Nano).

- The 32GB Zen is now $299 (compared with a mind-blowing $499 for the admittedly cool 32GB iPod Touch).

- The diminutive 1GB Zen Stone routinely sells for as little as $30 online.

This author reviewed a number of Creative players for LAPTOP magazine over the years and always found them to be worthy competitors.