“Investors cheered Creative Technology’s 100 million US dollar settlement from rival Apple Computer on Thursday but analysts warned the Singapore company’s troubles are from over,” AFP reports.
“Analysts said the loss-making Singapore company faces an uphill battle to get its business back on track after investing heavily in the last two years to challenge Apple’s dominance in the MP3 music player market,” AFP reports. “‘Their cost structure is still too high, they are still losing money,’ said Claudio Checchia, a regional research manager with International Data Corp. They still have to go a long way to improving their own cost structure and to get sales high.'”
AFP reports, “Jonathan Ng, a technology analyst with CIMB brokerage, said the settlement has cleared the uncertainty of a possible long legal battle. ‘However, the settlement does not change our negative view on its core businesses. Demand for its audio products have been waning, and competition for the MP3 player market has intensified. We still cannot find any new ‘killer’ products from Creative that could help revive strong earnings recovery in the near term.'”
“Under the deal Apple will pay Creative 100 million dollars for a license to use the technology and would be able to recover some of the money if Creative licensed the patent to others, according to the companies.,” AFP reports. “Creative would also begin marketing its own line of iPod accessories as part of Apple’s ‘Made for iPod’ programme. ‘It is definitely going to bolster the fact that Creative does have superior technology… It shows that it is a technology company, just that Apple has more superior marketing,’ said DBS Vickers analyst Don See said, that the Singapore firm was strong in headphones and speaker systems design.”
Full article here.
Yeah, the reason Creative failed where Apple succeeded wildly is because Creative has “superior technology,” but Apple has “more superior marketing.” Keep telling yourself that, Mr. See, you delusional twit. Maybe someday you’ll come to believe it, even if no other sane person on earth does.
Related articles:
Analyst: Apple’s relatively small settlement with Creative removes threat hanging over iPod – August 23, 2006
Apple & Creative settle: Apple pays $100M for ‘Zen’ patent, Creative plans iPod accessories – August 23, 2006
In addition to the other obvious benefits of this move by Apple, I think it also gives them a legal response in the [hopefully] unlikely event that the DoJ makes antitrust noise about the iPod + iTunes market share. Always good to ensure that there’s a much weaker competitor around to deflect criticism.
Much like Microsoft did for Apple years ago.
As long as a newly-empowered Creative doesn’t do to Apple what Apple is about to do to Microsoft. And that’s not likely.
Even if Creative’s technology was superior how would this decision in anyway prove that? At the most you could deduce that Creative thought of and patented an idea first.
Does a so-called ‘fact’ (superior technology) need bolstering? This is the wailing of a loser.
How I love the English language. ‘Delusional twit’, pukeload, deep sh*t all these words are so fascinating.
Let’s look at the up side here, rather than focusing on the down side. Sure, Creative made some expensive decisions recently – decisions that didn’t pay off. But now they have another $100M in their war chest to keep them going while they try to gain a foothold in the MP3-player market. Better yet, they have decided to enter the iPod after-market. They are bigger than Griffen and the like and should be well able to come up with some profitable products – like ‘sleeping with the enemy for fun and profit’.
WTF?
Creative has “superior technology,” but Apple has “more superior marketing.” …
…”the Singapore firm was strong in headphones and speaker systems design.”
There we have one realy good ANALyst.
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MDN magic word: Best. Yes Apple is Best.
WTF?
Creative has “superior technology,” but Apple has “more superior marketing.” …
…”the Singapore firm was strong in headphones and speaker systems design.”
There we have one realy good ANALyst.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”angry” style=”border:0;” />
MDN magic word: Best. Yes Apple is Best.
“And all the colored girls go:
do-dee-do-dee-do-do-dee-do-do-dee-do….”
But on a sadder note, Pluto has been demoted.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
BOYCOTT CREATIVE
Creative may be “circling the bowl” but it’s us CONSUMERS that will flick the handle and wave our goodbyes.
hehehehe
“SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY” – HA HA HA HA – YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!
Pluto was a poser anyway. It spends part of it’s 200 earth year orbit of the sun inside Neptune’s orbit.
It just got ticketed and demoted for an illegal lane change.
Hell, Earth has a satellite bigger than Pluto and Earth is not one of the Big Boys.
Only 8 planets. It’s about time that was fixed.
The “superior technology” claim is such nonsense. Apple’s great advantage is not just software technology and hardware finesse. It is a deep understanding — embodied in the mind of Steve Jobs — of what customers want. Most companies brag about the “vision thing,” but the bulk of them are either lying or are having hallucinations.
The easy to use interface is crucial, but is difficult to architect and design. Apple’s competitors simply do not get it. It amazes me that they don’t, but it is obvious that they do not. I’m not complaining. Whining for ever over stupidly conceived and designed products is a waste of time. I made a big bet on a company that does it right. I bought a load of AAPL before they started their rise and it is paying off.
So I celebrate the stupidity of Apple’s competitors. They will soon make me rich.
Let’s put this $100 million into perspective:
Creative is currently trading at $7.18 (up almost 20%, BTW). They currently have 85.06 million shares outstanding. Last year their losses per share were $1.42. That is, they lost $118.2 million.
This $100 million is a drop in the bucket for Apple, but it won’t come close to helping Creative stop the spiral down the toilet. In addition, since Creative has to give Apple a percentage of any future profits from their “patents”, they are arguably even weaker than they were before.
Big Al,
actually, there is one more planet outside of pluto. It just hasn’t been discovered yet.