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iRiver to Build In-Dash Digital HD Players
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like iRiver is going to take over where the Rio Car left off. Their CEO announced today that they are near completion on a new plant in China that will produce HD-based in-dash digital music players for automobiles. The new plant can push out 700K units a month. With the iPod dominating the digital portable market, iRiver sees this as a wide-open area they can move into. According to MacWorld iRiver is the third leading seller of MP3 portables with 5.6% of the market, following the number two seller Rio which holds 6.4% of the market. And the Apple iPod? No surprise, only a whopping 65.8% of all units shipped. 92% if you only count HD portables."
Any market can be regarded as "wide open" if you have products of superior quality. Well, unless you face a big bad wolf-like company or state-owned monopolist that's giving you plenty of headaches and lawsuits.
www.weberseite.at
How do you sync up? By taking the drive out of your dash and plugging it into the computer? Wouldn't it be much more valuable if it was an actual portable that you could buy a dash docking station for? Sure, it might cost $10 more to build, but the value to most people would shoot up.
few people are willing to have the stereo shop monkey around behind their dash to wire in an aftermarket stereo. Especially one that costs $500+ as I'm sure these HD players will. Also they're unlikely to have good built-in amps so probably you'll have to put on of those in too...
Unless you have an older car, it's generally a bad idea. Nearly all the decks you can buy are of vastly inferior mechnical build quality to your factory deck anyway. The guys at Empeg made a great product but it's just too niche... I don't think this is going to take off until someone partners with the auto makers to get it built in at the factory.
You're quick to knock Apple's statistics, but where do yours come from?
iRiver is the third leading seller of MP3 portables with 5.6% of the market, following the number two seller Rio which holds 6.4% of the market. And the Apple iPod? No surprise, only a whopping 65.8% of all units shipped.
Reminds me of the old adage: "Second place is the first loser"
I always thought that was a rather annoying way to look at it. In this case I think it applies. 65.8 : 6.4 is just over a factor of ten. Damn Apple really does dominate that market. Hopefully this works out for iRiver. Otherwise there probably not going to last long. They're getting creamed (at 5.6%).
Though I suppose one can say by the same logic Apple is getting creamed in the computer market. Though I wonder how their numbers compare to other vendors (ei Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, etc) as opposed to apple vs. the entire PC market.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
fuck off.
Why the heck is it taking the auto industry so long to add simple network connectivity to cars? I know it's a price sensitive market, and potentially a security problem, but I've been anticipating this "no brainer" option for years....where is it???
I bet if apple had an actual kit to put an ipod in a car rather than all the hacker mods that are out there it would help in that area.
Personally, I don't want a device just for my car. I want one I can have in my car, home and anywhere else I go.
Evolution or ID?
Are you REALLY that far out of touch with the aftermarket entertainment offerings or is this a Troll? Most of what the OEMs offer is utter crap and built by the lowest bidder. MANY people replace their stereos with aftermarket components and $500 for a good headunit is CHEAP. Hell, there's an entire industry revolving around aftermerket entertainment systems for vehicles and several magazines devoted to it as well. Pull your head out once in awhile and look around for kripes sakes. Crutchfield http://www.crutchfield.com/ is but one example of a thriving online business revolving aorund this and if you take a look around one day you might even notice stereo shops in your community. I can think of three within a 5 minute driving distance of my home and I do NOT live in a city...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
The user interface had better be clear, simple and easy to use while driving, or no one is going to get one of these. Based on my small iRiver experiance, I don't see that happening.
It's not a monopoly.
Monopoly:A business that is the sole supplier of a particular good or service. Regulated monopolies, such as electric utilities, are generally restricted as to the returns they are permitted to earn. Other monopolies such as firms with unique products or services derived from patents, copyrights, or geographic location may be able to earn very high returns.
Can someone please make a car with a stereo that has an audio input? Does such a thing exist even in aftermarket? Assuming I already have a portable music player, I could just plug it in to my car stereo. Instead, I'm stuck using some pathetic mini FM transmitter, or cassette adapter if I have a cassette deck, or buying a whole new HD car stereo.
*sigh*
Since all digital music formats on these devices have some compression, audio quality will suffer. Maybe not discernable to most ears, but it is still there.
The large HD device is commendable for portability, but I would also like to see cars retain at least a CD-player. It is also time to get the better-than-CD audio formats into mass-production and use. A DVD-Audio/MP3/Sat/Radio auto system would be ideal.
I mean, really. they are like 99% of the way there. They have a dock. they have the airport express with wireless. Make a deck that will show up on my mac, lemme drag my songs over to it, and you are good to go. Or make a deck that I can slot my ipod into. OUt of mind, out of sight.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --