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iRiver to Build In-Dash Digital HD Players

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the so-many-cool-devices dept.

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."

6 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. open markets by cwebb1977 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
  2. Re:Misleading marketshare numbers by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're quick to knock Apple's statistics, but where do yours come from?

  3. DAMN! by red5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  4. Networking - The Missing Piece by superid · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I don't want to yank my player out of the dash when I want to add songs. I want to drive my car into my garage and have it present on my home network. Then from my desktop I will drag/drop songs to the car.

    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???

  5. Re:the problem is by Inda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's nonsense.

    Wiring up a car stereo is easy. It's no different than pluging in the speakers of a house stereo. Removing the trim to hide wires is the hardest part but even 'shop monkeys' can do this easily enough.

    Are you also saying that my Alpine is worse than the piece of crap that came with my Honda? I don't think so.

    --
    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  6. Input jack by fossa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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*