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Commodore - Back In The Hardware Biz At Last?
Aphrika writes "Commodore is back in the hardware business [via current owners Tulip Computers] and this time they're taking on... Apple? Due for release in August are three MP3 players; the eVic, fPet and mPet. The eVic is a 20GB (hence the name) hard drive-based player, while the mPet and fPet are closer to the Muvo/iRiver styled flash players. They'll also be hoping you pay a visit to the Commodore World Music Store once in a while to stock up on tunes..." We also recently mentioned Commodore's 'TV Game' and ROM-store projects over at Slashdot Games.
this is of course a marketing ploy to draw on the vintage name of commodore, and might i say a damn good one; if i didnt have an ipod i'd buy from them right away!
It's not Commodore, it's just the name.
It's like if I started calling my garage Digital Equipment Corporation and started selling pet rocks, it doesn't have anything to do with a VAX.
They bought the Commodore name some years ago and have just now revived it for an unrelated line of hardware.
So this isn't really Commodore -- why should anyone care?
I'm really surprised that they're introducing something like this, so late in the game. Sure, the market for digital music players may be growing fast, but there are a lot of others in this market, too.
There doesn't seem to be any indication of price, but I think they're going to have a hard time grabbing any kind of market share at all unless these things are cheaper than air... since the feature list for the eVic [what kind of name is that, anyway?? short for Victrola?] looks fairly standard, they're going to have to compete mostly on price.
One potentially useful feature would be the recording capabilities, assuming the interface allows live monitoring of levels. The specs mention bitrates for "music" and "voice" recording, but with a 20GB hard drive in there, it would seem reasonable to have the option to record uncompressed as well.
The mp3 player market is now a commodity market, which means the focus is of user friendliness and style, not features. There is precious little to choose between the various horizontally-opposed players; what sets the iPod apart is its style and its user interface. Your average consumer isn't going to care about the name Commodore. They will want to know whether the thing works and looks better than an iPod.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
I'd say that it remains to be seen. I can see your point, but I also have to wonder if non-geeks might still have vauge memories of using commadore's as kids. They were pretty great for the time, kids are easily impressed anyway, and memories of our youth have a way of becoming inflated as time goes by. It's possible a twenty something could walk by, and be caught up on sight of the logo by vauge recolections of technology way ahead of its time.
Or, as you say, they may not. I'd say there's at least a chance though.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Just the latest example of brand necrophilia.
And if Commodor beats out Apple, then good for them.
I suggest you read Slashdot
I think the name Napster actually has a negative effect on them, because people go to get more free music and figure out they have to pay. "Hey, this is bullshit!!"
iTunes on the other hand never was a place to get free music, so it doesn't have that negative vibe.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Commodore, it would seem, also needs a hint. "Cute" names that only a geek will get aren't like to sell a tremendous number of MP3 players. "iPod" struck me as an odd name, but Apple wasn't trying to be geek-cute when they chose that name. And they don't market the iPod as a geek toy, but as a hip accessory. Apple gets that music is about "cool" and "hip," and its obviously worked for them. Dell ("It's all about Cheap") and the rest of them either haven't learned this yet, or haven't been able to capitalize on it.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
You insensitive clod, how can you leave out M.U.L.E.?!?
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me
Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
Sad indeed, so it looks by all accounts its using something from windows media player. and what looks like some thinly veiled OEM mp3 players. There seems to be a total lack of technical info on their 'music store', I suppose its now the current fad to throw up a web music store and sell some players and thru a brand name you bought at bankruptcy auction in order to generate some capital.
Am I the only one that sees this as cynically as the rebirth of Atari?
I think the most ironic part is that you need WMP (with optional Commodore skin) to play your purchase from the Commodore music store. I wonder if they have the Amiga version ready yet?
While Microsoft got the rights to the look and feel legally, they didn't get the rights to the security, functionality, and sheer usability. Basically, they got the rights to make crap look pretty.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
The VIC name in VIC-20 actually referred to the GRAPHICS chip inside the machine! The graphics chip in the Vic-20 was the VIC-1, and the Commodore 64 had the VIC-II graphics chip!
So why did they call this the e-VIC when it is a SOUND device? It just makes no sense.
The e-SID, maybe.... but not the e-VIC.
There already is a hobbyist Commodore out there called the Commodore-1, and it's got nothing to do with Tulip.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
If they used one of those Via micro-ITX boards in a modern version of a C64 (built-in keyboard, big damn-heavy external power supply, and CardBus), and sold it w/ TV out for ~$250, then we'd be celebrating the return of Commodore!
Make it w/ 64 MB for history's sake, and have a 128 MB version <grin>.
The difference is this time around, that the iPod is controlling a lot more features than Walkmans of the earlier time - AND has patents around the manner of control, so that no-one else can quite duplicate the ease of use. Instead they have to come up with something better... which has yet to happen after many, many $$ have been poured into the attempt!!
I'm not sure how I feel about this aspect of patents, but you have to admit it gives the iPod some legs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I do agree that no-one has seemingly really tried to do "better" interface-wise - but that's because of an odd blindness that almost everyone seems to have that "better" IS more features! Even many Slashdot readers seem to think the iPod is all about fashion without realization that without the interface it has it probably would be lost in the crowd by now.
That just adds to my point tha the iPod has a lot longer legs than the Walkman. First a company has to realize what makes it great - then the hard work begins on actually making something better! I'm not so follish as to believe the iPod is the realization of the ultimate music player interface, but I do have to wonder how long it will be before someone bests them, given that Apple is also working on the same problem at the same time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I loved my C64 back in the day (even wrote some games for it back in the day (scroll all the way down)). I also did some 3D stuff on the Amiga 4000 with the video toaster. There really was a lot of fun to be had on those machines.
But it kind of makes my skin crawl that a group of completely unrelated people are marketing completely unrelated stuff under the commodore name. I don't know exactly why it bothers me, but it does. Maybe because it's such a blatant attempt at manipulation?
I don't know. But I sure loved the machines and software back in the day.
Cheers.
I don't see Ogg Vorbis mentioned in the specs, so no.