Creative Technology is introducing their new Zen Vision:M featuring a 2.5-inch screen at 320×240 resolution and a 30GB hard drive. The press release from Creative Japan states that the Zen Vision:M will come in white, black, and green and is due in mid-late December in Japan (worldwide release information and/or dates goes unmentioned in the press release).
Singapore-based Creative claims capacities of 15,000 songs and approximately 120 hours of video for the unit. Video playback formats supported include: WMV, MPEG4 and DivX, MPEG2, MPEG1, and Motion-JPEG. Creative claims battery life of 14 hours for music and 4 hours for video.
The unit measures 62mm x 104mm x 19mm (width, height, depth) with a weight of 166g.
Apple’s iPod also features a 2.5-inch screen at 320×240 resolution. Apple’s iPod specs state 7,500 songs and 75 hours of video for their 30GB iPod (15,000 songs and 150 hours of video for the 60GB iPod model) with a battery life of 14 hours for music and 2 hours for video (20 hours for music and 3 hours for video for the 60GB iPod model). Apple’s iPod supports H.264 and MPEG4 video formats.
The 30GB iPod is thinner and lighter than the Creative unit. Apple’s iPod 30GB measures 61mm x 104mm x 11mm with a weight of 136g.
Creative’s price for the unit is quoted in the press release at ¥39,800 (US$329) vs. Apple’s US$299.
Creative’s press release (translated from Japanese to English via AltaVista’s Babel Fish) is here.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? And why do iPod cloners (like Mac and Mac OS X cloners) always damage the chromosomes?
From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
cre·a·tive
Pronunciation: krE-‘A-tiv, ‘krE-“
Function: adjective
1 : marked by the ability or power to create : given to creating (the creative impulse)
2 : having the quality of something created rather than imitated : IMAGINATIVE (the creative arts)
3 : managed so as to get around legal or conventional limits (creative financing); also : deceptively arranged so as to conceal or defraud (creative accounting)
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Related articles:
Beleaguered Creative waves white flag, surrenders self-declared MP3 player war to Apple iPod – November 07, 2005
Beleaguered Creative shifts promotional efforts from music players to new sound card line – September 21, 2005
Apple debuts iPod nano, iTunes 5: how are Microsoft, Napster, Real, Creative, Sony feeling today? – September 08, 2005
Creative explores new way to beat Apple iPod: patent litigation – August 30, 2005
Creative plans ‘very vigorous defense’ of iPod navigation patent – August 31, 2005
Beleaguered Creative Technology’s ‘war’ on Apple iPod not faring well – August 15, 2005
Apple’s iPod shine dims beleaguered Creative Technology’s outlook – August 08, 2005
Microsoft not buying stake in Creative Technology – August 02, 2005
Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo adds fronts to war against Apple iPod – August 01, 2005
Analyst: Microsoft could buy Creative Technlogy in bid to compete with Apple iPod – July 14, 2005
Beleaguered Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo ‘optimistic’ the company will survive ‘MP3 war’ – July 01, 2005
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
Apple’s understanding of what really counts makes iPod+iTunes impossible to beat – June 22, 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
Another iPod knock-off! Oh boy, Apple’s legal team will kill this one if the market place doesn’t!!
It will make a nice paperweight.
white, black and GREEN!
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i think id wait until the ship date before suing them, that way they will waste all of their money on tooling, developing, packaging and marketing, before they have to stop selling them.
They must like losing money, or have gotten some ‘investment’ from M$.
Price point is the question. If the Zen can compete, it can compete.
Gee FM tuning will run wild in Japan. Hell with only one or two stations in some cities I’ll be lining up to buy this one. Most people love the iPod since they can get away from radio. If I need to listen to NPR or whatever just turn the iPod off and turn on the radio in their car.
Feature rich execution poor.
But on a serious note, the Divx option is pretty dang sweet wouldn’t need to transcode a lot of files.
that looks so similar it’s not even funny. When I just glanced at the image I thought it was 4 iPods. I wonder if Creative thinks that their claim that they own that style of interface prevents Apple from suing them for having it look exactly the same.
Am I the only one in the world capable of original thought or what?
The Zen had it’s day in the sun. The only people I see buying the Zen are those that have a serious anti-Apple bias. The Anything but iPod mentality.
Having owned them both. iPod and Zen when it comes down to it the iPod wins handsdown overall. Just a lot nicer.
It looks like a exact copy of the interface. Same color details and same system format. You guys think apple will complain.
but I hope you don’t have that many songs!
A wheel lets you get through thousands easily.
They really are taking the piss with this one…! Could this be Creative’s last stab at staying in the market?
Creative CEO – “OK guys, things are pretty desperate. What the hell do we try next?!”
Creative employees – “How about we trick a few naiive buyers into thinking they’re actually purchasing an iPod…”
Creative CEO – “Genius!”
Is this due out in the US in mid Dec?
Or is this going to be just a Japan release for now?
If that’s really what the device and interface looks like, then Apple will sue.
How Creative!
IF ONLY THE IPOD PLAYED ALL THOSE FORMATS!
The name “Creative” strikes me as ironic…
Jeezus.
SB
They copied everything from the dock to the remote control.
Apple will hopefully put a stop to this.
This article does not reveal that the Creative iPod rip off comes preloaded with 30G of gay porn by their CEO.
OK, so it can do all that. BUT
Where will the content come from. Currently the only source for decent video (legal that is) is the US iTunes Store. Do they connect to Mac? Do they work with iTunes?
the short and to the point comment award goes to gRen. Well played.
the pointful analysis award goes to but it doesn’t. I have encountered quite a bit of “anything but iPod” sentiment from hardcore techies. OGG is usually the main consideration proffered. I strongly suspect that DiVx will fill that role now.
Hopefully Apple will allow a broader range of video formats one day. I suspect that their relationship with the content providers will be a disincentive though. Why buy off the store if you can get it off bit-torrent and put it straight on your iPod?
We shall see …
Imitation is also the sincerest form of trade dress infringement. Release the lawyers!
Hmm, a more expensive iPod ripoff? No, thanks.
P.S. “Creative” is NewSpeak from the Ministry of Truth.
Creative: When you don’t care to send the very best….
Re: (hammer) “i think id wait until the ship date before suing them, that way they will waste all of their money on tooling, developing, packaging and marketing, before they have to stop selling them.”
<wait for it, wait for it, wait for it . . . O.K. NOW!>
That was funny! Thanks for the chuckle!