“Singapore’s Creative Technology Ltd. intends to maintain its business focus, even as it faces increasing competition in the MP3 player segment from industry giant Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL), a senior company official said Friday,” Dow Jones reports. “Creative will ‘stay focused’ on its business and intends to ‘fight this war we are facing now,’ Chief Executive Sim Wong Hoo said at an industry conference, adding that he is ‘optimistic’ the company will survive the ‘MP3 war.'”
“‘If you can survive … you will one day hit the jackpot,’ he said, without elaborating,” Dow Jones reports. “The company’s shares Friday closed 0.9% lower at S$11. It has fallen by about 55% so far this year… The Singapore company’s MP3 players, sold under the MuVo and Zen brands, are a distant No. 2 to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod players. Creative is currently facing considerable pressure on prices. A spate of price cuts by Apple prompted Creative to reduce the price of its five-gigabyte Zen Micro MP3 player to S$398 from S$448 last year. Late last year, armed with a US$100-million advertising budget, Creative seemed reasonably optimistic it could duplicate Apple’s success in the digital music player market, even though few analysts at the time shared that optimism.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sim Wong Hoo is the best. In six short months, he’s gone from declaring “war” and vowing to capture 40% market share to being “optimistic” his company will “survive” his self-declared “war.” Sheesh.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Beleaguered Creative may have to write off unsold stock as losses loom – June 28, 2005
Creative Tech’s reduced outlook drags on Apple, PortalPlayer, SigmaTel – June 27, 2005
Creative Tech cuts sales outlook, drags Apple down in early trading – June 27, 2005
Apple passed 20 million iPods sold milestone in early June – June 24, 2005
Creative Technology shares slide to lowest mark in almost two years – May 18, 2005
Apple squeezes and Creative’s profit plunges 72-percent – April 23, 2005
Apple iPod pressure forces Creative to drop prices on music players – March 01, 2005
Creative’s self-declared ‘MP3 player war’ against Apple isn’t going very well – January 20, 2005
Creative CEO: Apple iPod shuffle ‘a big let-down, worse than the cheapest Chinese player’ – January 12, 2005
Creative declares ‘war’ on Apple iPod, shoots for 40% market share of MP3 players – December 21, 2004
Creative Technology declares ‘MP3 War’ against market-dominating Apple iPod – November 17, 2004
Mossberg: Dell, Rio, Creative ‘iPod mini killers’ lag badly behind Apple iPod mini – October 27, 2004
Creative pushes to become ‘Pepsi’ to Apple’s ‘Coke’ in digital music player market – August 07, 2004
My my how the tone has changed. Instead of being confident they could bury Apple, now they are just confident they can survive.
LOL
“If you can survive … you will one day hit the jackpot”
Or if you do manage to survive you may end up pumping quarters into the slots for eternity, never making any gains and wasting your time.
From the Boo Hoo files: “One, two, three, four… I declare a thumb war. Against Apple. Hey…wait a second, do over. That’s not fair!”
Ha ha ha, now you are talking “How to survive” than ‘winning”. Losser!
Looks like Comical Ali landed his first job as a PR consultant.
MW “below” as in “below expectations”
Just goes to show – Never fight a land war in Asia…..
^
From: Loooong wait for ShortHorn
Jul 01, 05 – 09:10 am
“Ha ha ha, now you are talking “How to survive” than ‘winning”. Losser!”
Wow. You cannot spell OR write a coherent sentence.
“Beleaguered”
Good one.
Losser, rhymes with tosser.
Hmm, maybe he’s hoping for a short war with reparitions afterwards…
For the first time it is Apple that is putting relentless price pressure on the competition. Steve seems to be copying Mike Dell for a change.
May be it is time for Apple to license Fairplay to Creative. Right now, Creative will be willing to agree to any requirement Apple impose on them. Apple can make sure Creative does not start price war against Apple.
“May be it is time for Apple to license Fairplay to Creative.”
WHY?? What help will it be to Apple? When HP started selling the iPod, they became an instant #2. That just goes to show how much people don’t want what Creative is selling.
‘If you can survive … you will one day hit the jackpot,’
Have you ever been to Vegas?
Eventually the house gets the money with that attitude.
I think Mr. Hoo has a better chance to hit the jackpot in Las Vegas.
Creative sucks!
Unfortunately for them – all their customers realise that too!
Shame they don’t themselves.
The only way Creative is gonna sell any players is if they design it exactly like the ipod – Which they can’t as Apple will sue them big time!
itunes is the killer app and it’s what everyone wants!!
Anagram for Sim Wong Hoo—GISMO NOHOW
Anagram for sputnik–STINK UP
macnut222: “WHY?? What help will it be to Apple?”
Better to be proactive and sign them up when the competitors are down than wait for them to go running to government, decide Apple has monopoly in digital music player market and force Apple to open up the market (not sure what they can do, may be split iTMS and iPod or force iTunes to work with WMP format).
I’m sure this is the former Iraqi Information Minister. Talk about “Reality Distortion Field”.
S –
Your post seems to mix and match three governments: the U.S., the European Union and Korea. The U.S. government hasn’t done a thing to Microsoft after finding that they abused their monopoly power. Only the E.U. has done that. Could a Korean company could ask the European government to force a U.S. company to comply? If they did, I bet the case would drag on a very long time.
And why is it that, after one reads and re-reads one’s post before submitting it, one still never ever sees the typo?
“And why is it that, after one reads and re-reads one’s post before submitting it, one still never ever sees the typo?”
It’s because one is not used to doing it right in the first place.
Apple does NOT have a monopoly in the music business. That is a RIDICULOUS statement. Just because they have a huge market share doesnt mean they have a monopoly. You people don’t know what a monopoly is. MS was covnicted of monopolistic practices because they forced the PC industry to favor their OS, and they bundled software with the OS that couldnt be undone, in an effort to keep out competitors. THAT is a monopoly.
Apple has built a huge marketshare because they provide a quality product and a quality user experience that people have CHOSEN to buy into. Thats called free market people. There’s no case here.
Apple has no need to help Creative in any way. If a serious competitor breaks cover it certainly won’t be from this wannabe Asian corner shop whose only real talent is bravado. The sector has been defined now and it will be the big well known brand names that will compete with Apple if anyone can.