I was just wondering the other day what had become of the SanDisk Sansa View, which was first unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Now I know - it is on long term hold.

The gang over at Engadget got the scoop from SanDisk on Friday when a PR person for the company said the product was getting backburnered.“[We] decided to re-scope the product, so we’ll not be bringing it to market this year.” What this means (sort of) is that SanDisk is taking a long term look at the product to see perhaps what the future of portable media players might be before rolling out their first widescreen player. What it may also mean is they are waiting to see if Apple rolls out a widescreen iPod.

The Sansa View, for those who were unfamiliar with it, has 8GB of flash memory on board, meaning it can hold up to 33 video hours or 2,000 songs or thousands of photos. The Sansa View is 0.66 inches thick and sports a 4-inch widescreen display. Other features of this portable media player include an integrated speaker, a flash memory card expansion slot, music slideshow capability, a rechargeable battery that provides up to four hours of continuous video playback and 10 hours of continuous audio playback and support for many download music and music subscription services.

I personally hope they stay committed to this player - it is a great gadget on paper.