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Couldn't stand up to the iPod Juggernaut®.

D&M Holdings is getting out while the gettin's good. See ya.

iPod, Killer

Rio means River in spanish. That's exactly were they went, down river floating like a dead corpse. Who's next!!!

Killer iPod strikes again.

I can just see it...all those bozo Windows apologists writing about iPod killers will soon be writing Killer iPod strikes the Dull DJ.

With any luck, Creative will be next.

Creative might not be on deck, yet. One of the smaller players probably is next, but Creative's definitely in-the-hole.

There are probably more Rio players in the storage rooms of the dealers than in the hands of customers. These guys make great classical stereo equipment, but even there, the design stinks. Home stereo components still look the same as in the 80s, they are even back to silver fronts. I wonder when the VU meters will return.

Better yet...

With any luck, Microsoft will be the next to go.

...I love my iPod, but I've learned from years in the business that some competition is good. It pushes innovation, drives down pricing, and acts as an overall benefit to consumers. Just because we happen to love one particular product (and for VERY good reason) doesn't mean that we should desire that all other products go away. I don't predict that it will happen, and I don't think we should really WANT it to.

That said, I understand why some of these products will disappear: poor user interface, lackluster integration with software (particularly for the techo-phobic and techno-ignorant), and an overall poor consumer experience. Yes, it will happen that some will go away, but let's hope that it's not at the price of total iPod domination. We should WANT Apple to have some healthy competition. We'll all benefit from that (unless we're stockholders, I suppose...).

Sadly Mike B, MS has too much money to be next. They'll lose a lot of their influence and power (in addition to what they've already lost), but they'll still be here to infect the industry.

I guess the plan to compete with Apple by supporting Microsoft's format has not been the success they believed it would be. So much for their so-called iPod Mini killer.

First Snow White, now iRiver.
Tip: Do not bite the Apple

http://www.iriver.com/html/index.asp

Don't get me wrong, you're right. Competition is good (as we've witnessed from the OS situation we have today). That said, I have no sympathy for companies that go under because they lack a push to innovate their own products and only badmouth and hate on Apple because of their success with iPod (yes, I'm looking at you Creative (launching 'wars') and iRiver (pictures of people biting into Apples).

With this in mind, it is a shame that Rio was the company to go. Rio released the second MP3 player on the market - ever - and their products didn't look like iPod wannabe clones. Not to mention the fact that they didn't badmouth Apple every chance they got or do stupid things like launch 'wars'.

We shouldn't gloat too much - competition is good.

Still, an Apple monopoly is infinitely better than a Microsoft monopoly.

a moment of silence for the soon to be departed...
..


OK. Now turn the iPod back on. Keep on rocking.

Yeah! Great! Bring on the Apple monopoly so the iPod can become even more overpriced!

I have a Rio MP3 CD/am-fm player I got shortly before acquiring my first iPod. The Rio is a $179 piece of crap - ultra slow disc access and rotton (horrible) user interface. After two months of torture trying to use the Rio to play music in my van I bought the first of my three iPods. I would personally like to wish D&M holdings all the worst and I hope you lost plenty over this. Long live the King!

My only regret is that Rio did make the best non-Apple mp3 players out there. I would much rather see Creative or iRiver bite the dust than Rio, but this story proves that Apple's dominance of the market is virtually total at this point. I'm sure B.G. is thrilled by today's news that another "plays for sure" vendor is gone...

"Bring on the Apple monopoly so the iPod can become even more overpriced!"

Seeing as how they're generally priced at or below their competition on a per GB basis, I truly fail to understand what in the hell you're talking about...

Overpriced? For just a little more than a normal USB keychain memory module you can get one that includes iTunes? Long live the cheap simple iPod Shuffle.

Smart business move on their part. Being an also-ran in the low budget MP3 player market doesn't fit with success and excellent reputation they have with the Denon and McIntosh brands.

I also agree with the others that gloating is inappropriate (but only if overdone). Without the dark sea of bad to mediocre portable players out their, the iPod would have nothing to shine against. When iPod is the only player around, we will all go deaf from the sounds of complaints about it.

That's Karma for ya...

Cry me a iRio...

"The digital audio market is evolving in such a way that our competitive advantage will be to focus on creating premium home network products that are designed for compatibility with a variety of client devices and services," said Vic Pacor, president of D&M Holdings in the press release."

Now they can build ipod interoperability into their Denon receivers and partner with Apple instead of competing. That'll probably make them more money in the long run than selling the rios ever did (shouldn't be hard since they had to have LOST quite a bit on them).

"Now they can build ipod interoperability into their Denon receivers and partner with Apple instead of competing. That'll probably make them more money in the long run than selling the rios ever did (shouldn't be hard since they had to have LOST quite a bit on them)."

Too late. They already have products on the market.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home/denon-smart-life-ipodlovin-home-cinema-system-118119.php

http://www.t3.co.uk/news/entertainment/home_cinema_system/denons_made_for_ipod_home_cinema_system

im ashamed of all of you! think of the children!

Thanks to (Un)fair-Play. Luckily we still do have CD's

And "Plays For Sure" isn't proprietary at all either though right?

Looks like someone had them a nice big breakfast of CROW this morning.

Eat it, you slimy bastids.

Thanks, macnut. Doesn't look like they have much support between product divisions, or that probably wouldn't exist. Not saying it's not a good business move, but in a small way they were competing with themselves.

Howland, if you want a cheap music player maybe you should consider buying a Sony Walkman (tape player)

"...I've learned from years in the business that some competition is good..."

Agreed. Now if some competition would just arise, Apple would be forced to innovate at an even greater rate. Rio was no more Apple's competition than is Creative. These folks market cheap, inferior knock-offs... tossed-together circuits desperately and belatedly grasping for the scraps of a market that Apple created and currently owns.

Just a guess, but if competition does someday arise, it will likely come from Sony...

More room for Archos too.

You fan boys are just sooooo easy to wind up. I love it.

Competition drives innovation. Fortunately for us, Apple has always seen itself as the company to beat and they will continue to do so.

as everybody said, competition is good don't let us forget the dark days also. I know the iPod is not like the Machintosh don't remind me as to why? but instead of gloating so much let's just hope we continue to remind apple why we need them to continue to innovate so that all pretenders are gone and only the contenders remain.

PS: I hope this wasn't the company that declared war on the iPod because if it was then I feel not an ounce of surrow for them.

Well it didn't help Rio that you had to slam their devices on a desk to get them to work.

http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/09/1813228

No. Creative was the one that declared war. Rio was the company that did their own thing and generally didn't bother anyone.

I wish it was Creative.

"Well it didn't help Rio that you had to slam their devices on a desk to get them to work."

Reminds me of the Apple III. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_III

Competition is good, but the products that die aren't always the ones which are inferior. D&M just didn't have the interest in marketing a product with such thin margins (iPod's are even thinner).

The Karma is better in audio components and firmware design, plays Ogg and FLAC, has Crossfade and on-the-fly playlists, much better battery life... The competing iPod, at the time, didn't even have a 5-band EQ. Still doesn't, in fact. But, it has games. Woo Hoo! That's showing the audiophiles!

The Carbon was also clearly better than the iPod mini.

This story is about deep pockets and successful marketing. It's about people who are more interested in buying devices for conspicuous consumption, rather than buying a high-quality audio device.

Now that Rio is gone, iPod still isn't the best high-end DAP on the market. It's an iRiver product.

R.

And let's not forget the real Legacy of Rio. It's the Cambridge engineering team which now works for Sigmatel.

Next year, when you all jump up and down because your Apple DAPs now have crossfade and other new features, remember: that's Rio code.

The company’s decision to exit the Rio business followed a determination that they couldn't make beans out of it.

Rory,

While we can sit and argue over the audio quality all day long, we all know that for the average consumer, audio is, for the most part, just audio. As long as you can't tell that it is a lower bit-rate, who cares? I would have a hard time distinguishing 128 AAC than a regular CD. Why? I don't know, and I don't care. But it doesn't bother me, and I assume it doesn't bother most people because iPods fly off the shelf, regardless of the supposedly inferior quality. Why do most musicians own iPods? Why doesn't Trent Reznor own a Rio or iRiver?

Apple exists to target a general audience of people who aren't anal about audio quality, which I fortunately find myself a part of. I think these days a lot of people place more importance on the quality of the stereo equipment, rather than the quality of the music itself. I'm sure you can find evidence of this on every street in America with music blaring out of $1000 speakers being played by someone who couldn't tell you the first thing about the science behind music, much less carry a tune.

Mac Ed:
"Cry me a Rio"

hahhahaha.

LOL. Excellent, loved it!!

I've live in Sydney, Australia but have been studying Spanish for 18 months, from an Argentinian expatriate from Buenos Aires, which of course is on the Rio de Plata (River of Silver), and I really appreciated that one...

Sorry...do continue...