Melanie Lee reports for Reuters, “Singapore’s Creative Technology, which makes digital music players…”
MacDailyNews Take: They do? Hoo knew?
Lee continues, “…has cut its workforce by 2,700, or almost half, after the firm sold its manufacturing unit in Malaysia… The jobs were axed in the 12 months ending June 30 last year and were reported in an annual filing on Dec. 31, the Business Times said.”
“Creative Technology reported a net loss of $32.2 million in the three months ending September 30 last year,” Lee reports.
MacDailyNews Take: That “Zen patent” money must be long gone by now.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So nice to see a story about good ol’ Derivative. We’d pretty much completely forgotten about them.
The MP3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war… I’m planning to spend some serious money. I intend to out-market everyone… Creative is targeting a 40 percent share of the global MP3 market next year. – Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo, November 17, 2004
This is the way the “war” ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
Creative lost, Apple won, a long time ago. Why rub their faces in the mud? Let it go, have some class. M$, however, might be a different story.
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Bad time to be smug about people losing their jobs.
When Apple cuts back what will the take be?
I have to agree with the first commenters. Why this constant need to gloat over smaller competitors failing is beyond me. It’s only better for iPod fans, and for Apple in general, if somebody creates (no pun intended) a viable alternative which keeps forcing Apple to up the ante.
Granted, Creative has been moribund for a while, but we need the competition from somewhere (as long as it’s not from Microsoft!
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I’m pleased to see the initial reader response as negative towards MDN’s cheap shot “takes”.
That kind of “journalism” might resonate with some, but not with the kind of reader MDN should be cultivating.
The fact is that Creative was the dominant manufacturer of digital music devices for several years. They practically created the genre. That Creative ultimately lost its position to another is not unusual in the business world, and shouldn’t be grist for the snot nosed kids at MDN.
Easy on the hubris there, MDN. These are real people losing their jobs; it could be almost any of us next. There’s room for lots of kids in the global sandbox, so let’s play nice(r).
@ Thorin
They threw a lawsuit at Apple. How classy is that!
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I’m quite enjoying the posts on this thread. Up to the par of Apple users being more educated blah. blah. blah.. unlike some of MDN’s takes. (although some of them are pretty damned funny)
Some take MDN a little too seriously. If you want serious journalism, try a non-blog website. If MDN weren’t over-the-top partisan, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to read.
C’mon people, let’s retain our sense of humor. We are going to need it in the coming years.
I remember Creative. They’re decent enough competitors to the iPod. Their players worked. Imagine if the only competition is a player that can’t even keep dates right (looking at you, Zune). Apple’s engineers would be laughing so hard they’d forget to innovate. Competition keeps Apple on their toes, especially decent ones.
And I echo that being smug when others are losing jobs is not cool.
Creative Labs, I tried to get their card to work in a linux box. No luck. They don’t put much effort into supporting linux. A company has to have a vision – the vision drives the company. The vision doesn’t have to be linux.
I’m all for letting hearts bleed in times like these, but when someone spits in your face, you don’t forget it. Ever. Or, then again, maybe you guys do.
As for previous comments about “journalism,” whether it be here at MDN or at the NYT . . . there isn’t any! Anywhere!
There is only advocacy, people, and the sooner you realize that, the better. The “good ol’ days” of fair, unbiased, reportage are gone with the wind. The Old Gray Lady (the New York Times) is soon to be dead and buried, as will be all of her cousins. Woodward and Bernstein will carry her casket, and the internet will publish her obit. Good riddance.
I’m with you matt – the response is just as I expect from MDN….it’s why I come here. MDN isn’t laughing at people losing their jobs, they’re laughing at the foolish statements of Hoo. As am I.
We can be partisan and BETTER than them or we can be partisan and be at their level or worse.
I’d like for the Mac community to consistently take the high road and prove that we are what we claim to be rather than proving the Mac haters’ point.
@Randian: I agree there is no longer any such thing as “real” journalism. I was simply being gracious to those who feel spurned by MDN’s apparent audacious humor by suggesting they read the sites they would consider real.
Perhaps MDN needs a name-change (macdailyhumor.com) and a click-through (“I acknowledge I may encounter humor on this website and my doctor or care-giver has authorized me to experience such humor.”).
@@Matt: Mac-haters have no sense of humor and cannot be appeased. Don’t let them bother you. Just enjoy your Mac.
Hoo’s on second?
No longer
when your opponent has (almost) no chance but still he is overly provoking and proclaiming victory before even the battle starts … he deserves to be left broken and it’s hard to stop laughing
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As I learned to be an Apple fanboy here at MDN, I agree with MDN… Just as anyone who doesn’t use a Mac is “Stupid” and an “idiot”, why should we care about anyone losing their job who works for an Apple competitor???
Once again we have proof that Steve Jack is a “class act”.. Keep making fun of unfortunate people Steve!!!!!!!! It’s all part of “fitting in” as an Apple Fan!
MDN just disgust me at the joy in other people’s suffering. It is astonishing that someone could be so insecure in their computing hardware that they jump up and down at every single piece of bad news about the competitors. I truly despise whoever is behind the MDN’s comments.
Some people here need to look up the definition for black humor/dark humor.
And, it has nothing to do with tasteless Obama jokes.
Where does it say that these people are out of work? Creative sold the manufacturing facility. Unless the new owners replaced everyone with robotic manufacturing, many if not all of these folks probably just get a paycheck from a different company.
Lighten up folks. Hoo was making over the top predictions about Creative’s success and trying to rub Apple’s nose in it years ago (see above). He has now been given a dose of hubris. Something we all need from time to time.
Over the years Apple users have endured a great deal of the kind of crap MDN is now dishing out. In fact it is still going on today. I think it would be fine to let Hoo etc eat crow once in a while.
As for job losses, that is sad, but representative of mismanagement at the highest levels.
A lot of new Apple fans/users don’t sound like they’re old enough to remember all the gloating and the glee from the industry and media when Apple was struggling throughout most of the 90’s.
That’s where MDN’s take comes from. It’s not being gleeful or immature when others are losing jobs; that’s never good. It’s simply recognizing that all that old talk and speculation about the “Apple Death Watch” was ridiculous at the time.
Personally, I chuckle every day at some of MDN’s “takes”. Some of their writers need to be helping Jon Stewart out.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
exactly, these young ‘uns don’t remember the Apple death toll articles. Ther calls for apple to sell off it’s parts. The rolled eyes at the tech shops, or the walled garden being anywhere but where we were. I do. If it weren;t for iTunes, We wouldn’t have music on our macs. cd protection would be common and the public would have accepted windows only crap.
exactly, these young ‘uns don’t remember the Apple death toll articles. Ther calls for apple to sell off it’s parts. The rolled eyes at the tech shops, or the walled garden being anywhere but where we were. I do. If it weren;t for iTunes, We wouldn’t have music on our macs. cd protection would be common and the public would have accepted windows only crap.