Apple iPod clearly dominates the portable music/video segment. Even Frenimies like Microsoft failed to upset the iPod market with Zune. It seems only Linux is capable of giving Apple the best fight, and offer users with better alternatives.

I was mentioning to a friend that Linux has become omnipresent, and here we got another family of devices running on Linux-based Android. Philips has launched GoGear Connect, video player which is powered by Android, at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin.

The new Philips GoGear Connect takes the next step for Vidoe (MP4) players, being the first to offer the full Android experience. GoGear Connect comes pre-installed with Google Mobile applications and more than 100,000 apps can be downloaded from the Android Market.

GoGear come with a 3.2-inch touchscreen and patented FullSound technology offers which gives touch competition to the iPod Touch.

It has a built-in camera to shoot videos and picture. GoGear Connect comes with Philips Songbird, an alternative to iTunes, an easy-to-use program that makes syncing music from your PC hassle-free. Songbird owes a lot to the open source and Linux community who helped the development of the project.

Philips claims that GoGear Connect is the first WiFi-enabled MP4 player to offer the full Android experience: You can download and install the full range of Android apps, plus Android allows you to multi-task so you can listen to music, look at maps and use location-based services, all at the same time.

It also has a MicroSD card slot offering expandable memory to allow for more music, movies, and apps on the player.

Philips GoGear Connect will be available in Western Europe, USA & China from the end of October 2010. The recommended retail price is EUR249 for the 16GB version.