“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
