“Creative Technology, which has sought to make a digital media device that could rival Apple’s best-selling iPod, appeared to get more serious about the market Friday, saying it would de-emphasize its professional workstation graphics business in favor of the portable handheld device market,” Red Herring reports under the hilarious headline “Creative May Be iPod Threat.”
“Singapore-based Creative said it would refocus its 3Dlabs subsidiary on producing handheld devices that require intensive processing for video, audio, and 3D graphics. The company, one of the first to make a digital music player, has tried to challenge iPod’s dominance with its models such as the MuVo, but so far it hasn’t matched Apple’s success,” Red Herring reports. “The popularity of Apple’s video iPod also seems to have reinvigorated the portable media player market. Microsoft’s Windows-based platform, which Creative’s devices can operate on, didn’t catch on big time until Apple’s device appeared last October.”
MacDailyNews Take: It still hasn’t caught on big time, since Apple doesn’t use “Microsoft’s Windows-based platform” upon which Creative’s devices operate.
Red Herring continues, “Creative has seen its share of the market erode considerably since Apple’s entry into the market with its iPod line. Apple’s dominance of the market has even forced out another MP3 player pioneer, Rio… Creative has been pouring more of its efforts into portable audio and video. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, the company won a Best of CES award for its Zen Vision:M portable media player device, which plays music and videos, stores photos, and includes an FM radio and tuner.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “macnut222” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, for cryin’ out loud. Every writer who uses the so-tired-it’s-dead “includes an FM radio and tuner” line should be banned from ever writing another technology article again. Morons. Apple sold more iPods in the last 90 days than Creative will ever sell. Will. Ever. Sell. Not one of them included an FM radio and tuner. Consumers do not care. Just look at the numbers. It’s a feature without a market.
Creative’s Sim Wong Hoo on Monday: We’re declaring war on Apple iPod. On Tuesday: We’re going to focus on sound cards. On Wednesday: We’re going to concentrate on digital music players. On Thursday: We’re going to focus on something else – give me a sec – I’ll think up something… Sim Wing Hoo’s focus fluctuates more than Oprah Winfrey’s bathroom scale.
Didn’t Red Herring get the memo? “[Insert also-ran company here] may be iPod threat” headlines ended quite awhile ago when Apple blew away all competition and the parade of “competitors” exiting the market began.
And who’s surprised that Creative won an award for blatantly copying the Apple iPod from a show that Apple eschews? Hello, anybody? For a look at Creative’s not-too-distant future in digital media players, please see the related articles below.
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Related articles:
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Sony’s Walkman Bean is cooked – February 13, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell dumps ‘DJ’ hard-drive MP3 player line – February 04, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver pulling out of Europe? – February 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Thomson gives up on MP3 player, CE markets – December 12, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: BenQ withdraws from MP3 player markets – November 28, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Olympus halts production of portable digital music players – November 09, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Rio is dead – August 26, 2005
Apple’s iPod has blood on its Click Wheel: Virgin Electronics is dead – March 08, 2005
Bom Bom Bom
Ah, Creative, their name is funny to me.
Aye, but the Zen Vision M comes in green…
If it’s Windows-only, then it’s already a failure! People want choice at the computer platform level as well, which is just as (if not a lot more) important than some portable digital media player!
Look.
It’s nice that Apple are doing really well with the IPOD.
And it’s nice that nobody seems to be able to come up with a better design… just a copy design.
But why not try to be more humble about it?
It’s like the virus thing. I can imagine that there are geeks out there trying to write a Mac virus, just because of the arrogant way that OSX users are showing off the safety of OSX.
The same way, when Apple fans start arrogantly dismissing the lack of success of a rival product, it kinda makes people want to see the Apple fans fall flat on their face.
All I can say, it’s a good thing Steve Jobs is gracious about these things. (At least publicly)
What is up with the term “FM Radio and Tuner”? Isn’t it obvious that a tuner comes with a radio? Otherwise wouldn’t it be “FM Radio that cannot be tuned”?
If you look at it a different way, it is not the iPod that is forcing others out of the market since the iPod seems to be plateau’ing at 70-80% (of an increasing size pie). Instead it is the iPod alternatives who are killing each other. If there were only one alternative to iPod (Amazon, Creative, Dell, SANdisk or whoever) they could survive quite well with the 20% of the digital music pie.
Solution: the iPod ‘alternatives’ should buy each other out and be happy with 20%, or ditch Microsoft and create their own Amazon/Google DRM, player, software, store solution that works across Win, Mac, Linux & mobile phones. Yet even this is doomed to fail, because it doesn’t give consumers anything different to what they have now. We might buy them if they provided something different – they don’t, so we don’t buy them.
Why: MacOS could never beat Windows by running Windows – it has to be better and do things Windows cannot. It has now achieved that goal with MacOS X and iLife. So too with iTunes, to beat it you must be better. As they cannot, they are destined to fail.
The article read…
“company post improved financial numbers…. Net sales rose to $390.8 million, compared with $375.1 million in the year-ago quarter.
Did someone say “Joke of the Day!”
MW: PERFORM, as in, You need an integrated system in order to perform in this market.
Wow! Another intelligent, mature take by MDN.
You know, if the iPod had a built in radio, all you guys would be supporting that just like you support the video and photo ability in the iPod.
Abid…
Most Apple product users are low key about their Macs and iPods. MDN, however, is the pub we all go to after the football game to cheer our teams wins and grouse about our losses. The volume here is louder, but when we leave we go about our business with a less rabid attitude.
So if market dominance by the competition means a company should drop out of the running then why is Apple still making computers? They are aren’t they? From most of the commercials I’ve seen they just sell iPods. Too bad.
“You know, if the iPod had a built in radio, all you guys would be supporting that just like you support the video and photo ability in the iPod.”
No, if the iPod had a built in radio I’d never use it and grouse about the extra cost and size. I have an iPod so I don’t have to listen tot he radio, thank you very much.
BTW, Apple did release an FM radio attachment for the iPod. Notice how nobody talks about it — even though it’s an official Apple product.
Creative’s Won Hung Lo should get a life.
scopi, where to begin?
“No, if the iPod had a built in radio I’d never use it and grouse about the extra cost and size.”
– First, no one gives a sh!t about you. Second, there are many things (hardware and software) that get added into an iPod (or even a Mac) that are not needed or used by everyone, or even the majority of people, yet they still get included. What about those costs? Size? Hah, apparently you don’t keep up with technology much.
“I have an iPod so I don’t have to listen tot he radio, thank you very much.”
– Once again, your opinion is not representative of any more than .0000000166% of the human population. With that said, there are many reasons why it might be nice to at least have the option. Just because you are incapable of imagining any uses, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
“BTW, Apple did release an FM radio attachment for the iPod. Notice how nobody talks about it “
– Apparently you didn’t notice the price tag.
Here, I’ll even throw in the MDN argument…
“Just look at the numbers. It’s a feature without a market.”
– Nonsense, the market hasn’t decided anything, just as the market hasn’t decided that Macs are useless computers.
During the .bomb heyday, Red Herring was occasionally known for quality analysis and writing. But this piece of drivel is amazing:
“The popularity of Apple’s video iPod also seems to have reinvigorated the portable media player market. Microsoft’s Windows-based platform, which Creative’s devices can operate on, didn’t catch on big time until Apple’s device appeared last October.”
What nonsense.
MW: “didnt.”
“Most Apple product users are low key about their Macs and iPods. MDN, however, is the pub we all go to after the football game to cheer our teams wins and grouse about our losses. The volume here is louder, but when we leave we go about our business with a less rabid attitude.”
Worth repeating. Nicely put Spark.
Both ‘The Register’ and ‘Red Herring’ are about as disreputable as any so-called news operation can be. Neither get my hits any more, there are enough of other things to laugh at without giving them my business…
“I can imagine that there are geeks out there trying to write a Mac virus, just because of the arrogant way that OSX users are showing off the safety of OSX.”
And this has been a point of mine all along. The morons who say OSX is secure because of obscurity dont understand that virus writers do it for ego and it if were that easy to take down MacOSX they would have tried to shut up the smug Mac user base.
But we still haven’t seen that happen have we? I wonder why.
“You know, if the iPod had a built in radio, all you guys would be supporting that just like you support the video and photo ability in the iPod.”
No we wouldn’t because radio sucks. If it were in there, it would just be in there, it wouldn’t be a driving force behind sales.
Now if it had a satellite radio built in, that might be a different story.
“- Once again, your opinion is not representative of any more than .0000000166% of the human population.”
And your facts come from where? Or is this just your opinion?
1st Prize
A Dell digital music player
2nd Prize
(2) Dell digital music players
3rd Prize
(3) Dell digital music players
…
I smell blood.
“If it were in there, it would just be in there, it wouldn’t be a driving force behind sales.”
– The article didn’t even suggest that it would. No one is saying it would be a driving force behind sales just as no one is saying that the included headphones are driving the iPod sales.
“And your facts come from where? Or is this just your opinion?”
– The fact that there are over 6 billion people in the world, of which scopi can only speak for one. Others may share his opinion, but in no way was he elected as spokesperson for mankind.
Appeared last October????
When was this written?
You know, if the iPod had a built in radio, all you guys would be supporting that…
Yes, “sigh”, we’d all support it. Every last one of us. Every one. Because we Mac zealots have a hive mind. We never, ever, ever complain about Mac products.
Well, unless you count…
— bitching about the price of new products
— bitching about the switch to Intel
— bitching about some feature we want added to iPod, like wireless
— bitching about the bitrate of iTMS songs
— bitching about new models coming out right after we buy
— bitching about the mouse included with Macs
— bitching about iPods no longer syncing via Firewire
— bitching about Apple’s lack of Mac advertising
— bitching about anything Apple does/doesn’t do that we think isn’t/is a good idea…
But other than that, we NEEEEEEEVER criticize Apple. ‘Cuz they’re like, y’know, infallible and stuff.