“ReignCom’s iRiver models now account for a fifth of all flash-memory players sold in the U.S., according to market researcher NPD Group Inc… Its flash-memory players are now at the top of their class in the U.S. Look out, iPod? …Yes, Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod rules in the segment with hard drives, where prices range from $300 to $500. That’s twice the cost of most flash-memory players, but the hard-drive units can hold up to 40 times as much music — 10,000 or more songs. Not everyone wants so much capacity, however, and ReignCom has come out of nowhere to grab the top spot in sales of the less capacious flash-memory-based players. Worldwide, it sold 1.2 million last year. Revenues nearly tripled, to $193.3 million, in 2003, while profits jumped fivefold, to $36 million. Investors like the tune. Since listing in Seoul on Dec. 19, ReignCom shares have more than doubled, to $94,” Moon Ihlwan reports for BusinessWeek.
“Plenty of others are looking to get on the bandwagon. All the big Japanese consumer-electronics makers now offer players, as do Samsung and a host of smaller Korean rivals. Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, comes from Apple, which just introduced the iPod Mini. This $250 machine costs less than iRiver’s top flash players but holds about four times as much music on its hard drive. In response, ReignCom in June started rolling out a line of hard-drive-based players. Although the gadgets cost slightly less than iPods, they’re not as sleek, and iRiver sold just 73,000 of them last year. Now, ReignCom is one of five hardware makers working with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) to develop a handheld audio-video player capable of holding more than 100 hours of movies and thousands of songs. Sure, it’s another big bet, but ReignCom has wagered heavily before — and won,” Ihlwan reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Look out, iPod?” Ihlwan answers her own question with, “Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, comes from Apple, which just introduced the iPod Mini. This $250 machine costs less than iRiver’s top flash players but holds about four times as much music on its hard drive. In response, ReignCom in June started rolling out a line of hard-drive-based players. Although the gadgets cost slightly less than iPods, they’re not as sleek, and iRiver sold just 73,000 of them last year.” This article is a study in how to integrate a popular word or two (such as “Apple” and “iPod,” for search engine purposes) into a story about a teeny company which is now forced into hitching its wagon to Microsoft. This miniscule company will supposedly now make hand-held video players (for which no market has been established), presumably to be laced with proprietary Microsoft DRM, because Apple is kicking its tiny collective ass off the map in the digital music player market.
“Macfags jerk off to the fact that finally after 20 years of struggle an ‘Apple’ product (based on operation system/hardware of other companies LOL!) has bigger market share than 3%… LOL! Maclosers!”
Can anyone here be sure that this wasn’t actually posted by Steve? It would explain why he doesn’t want to attend MacWorld Boston
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“I’m so tired of hearing this from the same five people on every forum.”
No shit! I’ll never use that format since its promoters are so fanatatical about shoving it down my throat! Give it a frickin’ rest.
“Warning: Just because iPod has the lead now, doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever (think Apple’s slow decline into single digit market share)…” – Russell
Agreed. Apple should not take their position for granted. On your second point, there are several factors contributing to that:
1. That visionless hack Spindler was at the helm at Apple
2. Microsoft’s FUD machine was at full force for Win95 (I remember a story about a woman buying Win95 even if she had no computer!)
3. Media’s self-fulfiling prophecy which said Apple was beleguered/dying; thus, people were scared from buying Macs and companies from developing Mac apps that in turns contributed to Apple’s declining marketshare which media cheered as beleguered.
Factor 1 is gone, Jobs is back and factor 3 is pretty much neutralized (even in some cases, they praise Apple). MS’s FUD machine does not run at full capacity now after all the beating they took during the trial, after all the viruses and worms, etc. So, I think we can be confident that the slow decent in marketshare will not repeat itself.
I’d love an AM/FM tuner for my iPod for sports alone. Listening to a game on the radio sure makes shopping with the wife more bearable.
what I want to see are numbers on the installed base! sure the flash players are selling more no doubt because of all the folks I know that have bought 2,3 or 4 and never used them because they were to small, to hard to use or only held 5 or 6 songs. people buy them because they are cheap and then they find out why.
the only people I know of that stopped using an iPod are ones that bought a bigger iPod.
By the way the iPod mini is in my opion the smallest you can get and still be usable (as far as width and hieght) any smaller and you cant read the display or use the controls effectivly.
No shit! I’ll never use that format since its promoters are so fanatatical about shoving it down my throat! Give it a frickin’ rest.
Now that is an intelligent response. I’m fanatical? I don’t even come close to you Mac fanatics. So you won’t use the format even if it is better? Sounds eerily similar to what Windows user says regarding Mac fanatics.
Unlike many others here, my Mac is just a tool. Not a girlfriend. And Steve Jobs is not the chosen one.
“I don’t even come close to you Mac fanatics.” – Jeff S.
Then get the hell out of here. And who has said Macs were girlfriends or that Steve Jobs was anything but a good CEO?
Audiophiles consider the iRiver hard drive model to be a little better than iPods sonically, something Apple should pay attention to. However, what’s always missing in these discussions is that iPods are bootable Firewire hard drives that also play music! You can have your entire computer on an iPod, OS, programs, files, everything, connect up to a computer away from home, restart and you’re at home! This to me is the iPod’s best feature.
I agree about FM, it sucks. That’s the main reason to have your own music, so you don’t have to listen to FM. So it’s a non sequitor that iPods don’t have radio tuners.
Then get the hell out of here. And who has said Macs were girlfriends or that Steve Jobs was anything but a good CEO?
There’s no denying that Steve Jobs is a fantastic CEO. But it seems to me that you can’t make a suggestion around some of you diehard Mac fanatics without them criticizing you. Because my god, if Steve hasn’t included it, it must suck.
Jeff: Interesting. I must not be familiar with the particular “Mac fanatics” you are referring to. Let me consult my the magical orb in the hand of my Steve Jobs golden idol for guidance.
Seriously, though, the constant promotion of the ill-named Ogg Vorbis format is really annoying. Maybe you guys can just tone it down a bit? I mean, if you really want it supported so bad, how about blitzing Apple with emails?
Seriously, though, the constant promotion of the ill-named Ogg Vorbis format is really annoying. Maybe you guys can just tone it down a bit? I mean, if you really want it supported so bad, how about blitzing Apple with emails?
Apple gets a lot of emails for it. There is a big petition drive on the apple discussion board. I’m afraid its one of those times where an open source product doesn’t provide a real benefit for Apple. Its not a knock on Apple. But as much as they have used open source (Darwin, KHTML, GCC, Apache, Postfix, Tomcat, etc) it would be nice for them to throw a bone to the open source community.
I guess Steve is trying to establish AAC as the default music format. The problem with it is the same one that the open source community had with MP3. MP3 was allowed to be used for several years but then the Frauhofer Institute decided to seek licensing fees for encoders. This made Ogg Vorbis the defacto standard in open source. AAC will never catch on in the open source community do to its licensing fees. In fact it may have a hard time becoming the dominant standard period because of the licensing fees. It costs $15000 up front to even try to write an AAC encoder. That is why Ogg Vorbis is being “fanatically” pushed. Patents and licensing fees are making it damn near impossible to do anything regarding software development.
“But as much as they have used open source (Darwin, KHTML, GCC, Apache, Postfix, Tomcat, etc) it would be nice for them to throw a bone to the open source community.”
Jeff S.,
It’s a mistake to assume that Apple has not returned the favor. They have in fact released much of their own work back to the Open Source community eg, their work on KHTML.
As for the troll, it never ceases to amaze me that wintel fools continue to lurk on Mac sites. If our platform sucks so badly, why do you keep coming back to find out what Apple is up to? Go climb back into Thurrott’s ass where you belong and absorb some more MS “innovation”.
Apologies to Windows users who don’t share this moron’s opinions.
Atomic Bomb,
I agree with Jeff S. about the shrill fanatics. I’m sure Windows sites receive more than their fair share of hate mail from the mouth breathers, and I’m heartily sick of these idiots who make the rest of us look bad. I read MDN because there are many, many people here who are capable of rational, civilized discourse, and it is for their contributions I keep coming back. But it’s damned hard to ignore the frothing zealots for whom Steve Jobs is God. I’ve said before that I personally think that Jobs is an arrogant jackass, but you know what? I’m also damned grateful that he’s back at the helm. His personal foibles are completely irevelant to me, and I consider him one of the great visionary minds in technology. Only an blind frothing zealot is unwilling to take a good hard look at our beloved platform and admit to its shortcomings.
I have to say that I used an iRiver SlimX 350 Disc player before getting my iPod and I was very impressed with the sound quality. It sound quality is a “hair” better than the ipod but I could be subjective in that. I gave it up because the “fucking” player skiped like school girls in a park. Because I jog alot, the iPod is much better suited for me. PLUS, I don’t have to burn mp3 discs for it. But hey, maybe I’m the fucking Ass?
It’s a mistake to assume that Apple has not returned the favor. They have in fact released much of their own work back to the Open Source community eg, their work on KHTML.
Not to dismiss this contribution by Apple, but is this it? They made some changes to the code. Fixed some bugs and contributed it back to the KHTML project. I’m sure this billion dollar company could provide a little more don’t you think? Yes they have open sourced Darwin, but come on who really uses it?
Man, after trying to think of open source contributions, I’m starting to realize that Apple really hasn’t contributed much to open source. Someone help me out here. Outside of KHTML, what have they provided?
Anyone? I’m not being sarcastic. I really can’t think of any project where Apple has helped out.
Jeff S.,
I agree wholeheartedly that Apple could do more for Open Source, but I get the impression that they’re feeling their way carefully forward. Baby steps, pal, baby steps. I think a big part of the problem may be that traditional companies really don’t know how to dovetail their businesses with such radical ideas: “What? You mean spend time and capital on a project then give it away? For free?! Our shareholders will shit razor blades!”
I can only assume that they are desirous of maintaining a competitive advantage, and have to carefully weigh how much and what to release to the public, without competitors snapping up and incorporating their innovations before they can formulate a strategy for bringing them to market. A certain company in Redmond comes to mind, and I’m sure you’ve heard the old joke that Microsoft’s R & D division is in Cupertino. Also, corporations are far from monolithic, and there are always competing factions and interests jockeying for influence and the CEO’s support, and with an enterprise as secretive as Apple, we may never know the depth of their commitment to open source.