iRiver’s global home page currently sports an interesting animated image of a blonde woman model alternating with a dark-haired male model each of whom are pictured biting into, you guessed it, an apple.
In September 2004, iRiver held 18.8% of the flash-based music player market of according to NPD World. This was, of course, before the Apple entered the flash-based player market with last week’s debut of the iPod shuffle (currently sporting a 4-week wait even with the initial iPod shuffle stockpile rumored to have been 2 million units). In the same report, Apple held 87.3% of the hard drive-based music player market while iRiver weighed in with 1.5%.
Do something that not many have done before and visit iRiver’s home page here: http://www.iriver.com/
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple says up to 4-week wait for iPod Shuffle; initial stockpile rumored at 2 million units – January 18, 2005
iRiver CEO on Apple iPod shuffle: ‘It will be very difficult for users to find their favorite songs’ – January 17, 2005
I wonder what that model bought with her paycheck from the photo shoot!!!
Magic word is alone… where the rest of the players will be shortly…
Wow.. an Apple dis on a webpage no one will visit. Ho-hum.
No offense to MDN.. it’s a hilarious story.. but it’s a pathetic dis from a company that is, in a way, named after the iPod
Isn’t the blonde also wearing a black mock turtleneck?
This post brought to you by minutes, the length of time left for iRiver to be a viable company.
The apple should have been grape, sour that is!!! Cry me a freaking iRiver!!!
gaay
Damn near went to second place overnight. Will be by the time Apple catches up with the backorders.
What a terribly weak ad by iRiver. They can’t communicate as to why someone would want their product over an iPod so they have to take this route. Pathetic.
This post was brought to you by the word “saying”, as in: All I’m saying is that iRiver’s marketing department is full of morons.
God that second chick is scary!
Brought to you by the magic word, Truth.
I like iPods as well as the next guy. But this chick is HOT! I’ll be dumping my iPod, and AAPL stock, and PowerBook, into the trash so that I can spend the rest of my days dreaming about what she’s thinking about with that vixen look on her face.
Ah iRiver, you saw right through me and my shallow desires. If only Apple were half so savvy.
The magic word is “third,” which rhymes with turd, which describes this blockbuster iRiver ad pretty succinctly.
ummmmh applllllles
must go to Apple website now and buy iPod
Aauuurrrggghhhh, she suddenly turned into a dude! I’m now retrieving my iPod, PowerBook, and AAPL stock from the trash. I’m so over you, iRiver vixen who dudifies without warning.
How interesting. Gizmodo is reporting just this morning that [a href=”http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/iriver/jenna-jameson-for-iriver-029966.php”>porn star Jenna Jameson is featured in an iRiver spot</a>.
Is this a joke? The magic word is “coming”. MDN is beginning to scare me. Time to get out the tinfoil hat again…
Lame. Some goof who needs a haircut.
Blonde’s not bad tho.
Next up is Real.com with the big-boy Glaser himself smearing a jelly donut into his pie hole.
Their PMP-120 supports USB-on-the-go ($499). It can copy files directly off your digital camera for many manufacturers. For those that aren’t supported, a simple card reader can be attached (no funky or expensive Belkin reader).
That’s pretty cool!
Clever advertising. The subtle poke at “Apple” is lost on 99.9% of the site’s visitors, for sure.
The whole idea of advertising is to “persuade” and get a potential buyer to “buy” something (image advertising not withstanding).
The use of flash is creative and attractive and probably won’t do much because there’s no “emotion” and, as Mac users already know, “emotion” is important– not features, not low price, not looks.
Get the right “emotion” from each of the above and you’ll sell stuff. Apple gets it with the Mac, with iLife (and other Apple software and hardware), and they got it VERY right with the iPod.
So far, it’s hard to see that anyone else has it right.
Interestingly, that “emotion” or that bond we have with the Mac was transferred successfully to Mac OS X (for most of us) and to our Mac applications.
Windows users have ONLY had that same kind of feeling with their iPods. Now, imagine what would happen if that same kind of “emotional bond” could be transferred to an attractive, affordable, nearly problem-free, small computer, that just works.
Mac mini?
Like a gift box that contains other gift boxes, Steve Jobs in unwrapping the future of Apple. One product at a time. It’ll take six months to get the iPod shuffle and Mac mini ramped up to production levels to match the objectives.
That’ll happen just as Mac OS X Tiger hits the streets and it’ll run for a full year before Longhorn debuts.
Woo hoo! 2005 will be an interesting year.
Tera Patricks
Mac360.com
you’d think that the bourgeois scum that designed the ad would be a little more creative. Why not have a chick covered in applesauce. Yum, yum.
MDN Magic Word = show
This is just too good. I found the link to the original article, in the English-language Chosunilbo, a Korean paper. According to the article, Reigncom, the iRiver’s manufacturer, chose Jenna Jameson because of the recognition that many of the iRiver’s buyers use them to watch “adult materials”. What’s unintentionally hysterical is the fact that they refer to the iRiver as a “portable multimedia player (PMP)”. Too funny. Let’s take bets to see how long before Mac zealots start referring to the iRiver as the “Pimp”. Mind you, not that I’m suggesting any such thing…
Here’s my vote for a sales slogan:
“Catch Jenna on your Pimp!”
The magic word is “death”, my prediction for this ad campaign when conservative Christians get wind of it.
Go Apple Legal! It’s a threat! I swear!
Do something that not many have done before and visit iRiver’s home page here:
Did so and I was quite impressed, the iRiver looks very nice and I purchased one for heck of it.
Thank You so much MacDaily news, I didn’t know how nice they were until you thoughtfully pointed their website out to me.
Of course I then purchased a nice HP Laptop so I can play my universal M$ “Play For Sure” music from all the music sites I visit.
I really think Apple is a closed world, it’s only Apple’s way or the highway.
MARKETING RULE #1
#1 Does not recognize and therefore legitimize #2
YOU JUST GAVE IRIVER FREE MINDSHARE ADVERTISING YOU STUPID ASS!
Have a nice day, now go kick yourself.
Hmm. My kids refer to their listening to music as “Podding”, as in “Have you done your homework?” “Not yet Dad, I’m just Podding for a few minutes first”.
Will we hear iRiver users telling their parents that they haven’t taken out the garbage because they’re too busy “Pimping”? Just wondering.
devnull
LMAO.. my stomach hurts hahahahaha
How about Glaser slurping a bucket of Apple Sauce
To the guy who thought the chick was hot.. *shakes head.. watching TV must be agony for you
Tera,
I know your last name is Patricks, with an “S”, but I think it only fair to warn you that a link to the iRiver/Jenna Jameson story directed me to Fleshbot which is carrying a blurb about a Tera Patrick love doll being auctioned on eBay. Seems there’s a porn star “named” Tera Patrick (no “S”). Don’t be surprised if a lot of mouth-breathing geeks overload your inbox. Wait…let me rephrase that….
What clueless marketing. This has to be picked up by AdWeek as an example of what not to do.
As has already been noted, you do not generally give free publicity to your competitor.
Also, it should be noted the concept really SUCKS. For one thing, someone should tell iRiver that THE APPLE LOGO ALREADY HAS A BITE IN IT!
What are they trying to say? That iRiver users love Apple so much, they are replicating the logo? HELLO! APPLE ALREADY HAS A BITE IN THEIR LOGO! THEREFORE, IRIVER USERS BITING INTO A LOGO = IRIVER USERS MUST LOVE APPLE!
Somebody hit iRiver with a clue stick, fast.
BTW, here’s an analogy. If one wanted to take a cheap shot at Microsoft, one could chisel a huge “Microsoft” logo out of 20 tons of solid granite, then take a wrecking ball and smash it down.
iRiver, by having users bite into an Apple, did the equivalent of taking 20 tons of solid granite, chiseling out “Microsoft” and basically saying, “That’ll show ’em!”
To which Microsoft says, “Why, we didn’t know you cared!”
Sun Tzu said, “Know thy enemy” but apparently iRiver doesn’t even know what the Apple logo looks like.
Supports Window 2000/XP (limited support for Windows 2000)
Their doesn’t seem to be any Macintosh support.
BTW – With only 5GB’s, why is the iRiver H10 not called the H5?
Magic word, “gone” Draw your own conclusions.