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Creative Gunning For the iPod
yashchopra writes "CTZ is running an article where Creative's main goal in 2005 is to take away market shares from Apple's iPod music player, which they believe is very possible. The publication also have some information on the upcoming flash MP3 player standards that we will see this year. "While many companies are looking forward to their flash MP3 players, Creative has other plans. Creative was one of the most popular exhibitors on the show floor with their Zen Micro and Zen Touch players on display. Creative's sole goal this year is to take away some market shares from Apple's iPod. The company believes it to be a possible task, as iPod is limited to iTunes when it comes to purchasing music online and with Creative's products, you will be able to purchase music from major online vendors. The ability to download and listen music from any major online retailer and the price are what Creative is using as their marketing strategies to compete against Apple's iPod. But other than that, Creative's products look very much like the iPod with a few changes."
I can start my week without concern now. I have had my death of the ipod (or apple) article so all is right with the world.
Ford is trying to take market share from GM!!
Of course Creative wants to take market share from Apple. Why is this news??? Are nerds oblivious to simple economics?
Man, this must really be a slow news day.
Let us not compare Apples to Oranges.
:-)
Sorry, couldn't resist
I can see this being the year of partnerships. Wireless transfers will be a huge part of that.
:)
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
So CmdrTaco will team up with Creative for our new iPod-killer? I can't help but shout....
LOSERS!!!
Sorry, it had to be said.
If Creative want to take market share from Apple then they need to increase reliability. I got my wife a Zen Touch for christmas, and it went back to the shop just two weeks later because it kept locking up.
I did everything Creative recommended, the built in scan-disk, formatting the disk, upgrading the firmware but in the end it was still locking up nearly every time the thing was turned on! A quick google search turned up posts on the creative forum that showed that I am not alone in this problem. Even reviews of the player mention that it froze up, but most just gloss over it.
It is a shame that the player had these problems because my first impression of the Zen Touch was a quality player. It's made from metal, not plastic, has a good screen, fantastic battery life. Altogether better construction and design than the iPod and cheaper too.
I'm giving them a chance to replace the player when they have stock but I'm not impressed by these problems and my next purchase probably won't be a Creative product.
A latent existence
funny .. allofmp3.com works fine with my iPod
A haze from crack smoking has unexplainably engulfed Creative's HQ during the statement.
People buy apple for its style and ease of use.
Just thought I should point that out because it's a new and exciting fact that no one has ever mentioned before.
Competition is good - just look at what windows has done for the Mac OS.
Yes- it has given the Mac OS a dominant 2.5% market share!
Less talk and more action. When companies TALK about doing something, but actually don't seem to actually be DOING a lot of anything, people lose interest.
Creative have been at this for long enough, and I don't see why they don't just channel all this hype up into a bloody good product rather than releasing products which try and keep up with what Apple are doing. Nothing of theirs that I have seen so far has been particularly innovative - just one big game of catchup.
Make the killer product ffs and then wow us with it..
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
No, no, no. This is the year of High Definition. Didn't you see the keynote?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Was I the only one who read "Creative" as an adjective and "Gunning" as a gerund, implying that the iPod was being converted into some sort of imaginitive weapon which might be carried by ESR?
Ecce potestas casei!
I also dislike the fact that iTunes is such a part of the iPod. You can't put music onto the iPod without using iTunes (well, not unless you either don't want it playable or figure out the iPod's bizarre internal directory structure). I want my player to appear as a hard disk damn it! Having the player appear has a hard disk keeps the geeks happy, and allows dumbed down apps for normal users too. It also turns the player into a portable hard disk as well.
I think 2005 will be a big year for MP3 players. Iriver has got an impressive line of MP3 players with features such as a USB host function (as supported by the H300 series - connect a digital camera or external hard disk to your player!), optical audio out, ability to view text files (great for lyrics, notes, whatever... - maybe even artist information from the MusicMoz project), FM tuner, realtime MP3 encoding, support for standard M3U playlists, better battery and so on.
An iPod might be fine for the person with a bog standard music collection who doesn't mind the lock-in of an all-Apple solution. It's not fine, however, for someone like me who has written his own software to handle his music collection with web-based search, lyrics integration and so on. I've seen the value that can come from a non-locked in solution.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really anti-Apple. They brought these kind of players to the mass market, but their technology is now lagging behind. Let the battle commence!
Wow, it's in the grey area. I congratulate you on your lawfulness.
The new Mercedes CLS 55 AMG makes me want to crap. The new BMW M6 undoubtedly makes me want to crap everywhere.
This is called diarrhea. I don't think it's the cars that are causing it. Please see your physician.
Acer Aspire 1520 ?
It's a brick.
HP Pavilion zv5000z
okee.
Is a very ugly brick.
80% of taste is determined by smell.
Guess you have a serious cold.
-- forget
What the hell is wrong with your eyes that you're so sensitive to anything white? Do you have the same aversion to paper? Whiteboards? Seriously, man, maybe you should have a doctor take a look at you...
And while we're on the subject of ugly Apple products and old Apple laptops, let's all take a moment to remember this disaster. Even the Apple fans panned that one.
Actually, Apple fans LOVED it... But, admittedly, it was something that people either loved or hated.
You've said it. Really, what Creative needs to do is to add Myrinet support to its players.
Now, that would be bandwidth, with the side advantage that you could even stop imagining a beowulf cluster of those.
Signatures are for stupids.
It's like, how much more black could the Acer be? And the answer is none. None more black.
(Oh, and the true winner for ugly Apple products is this one.)
These people have looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
" How are you winning? What is your battle cry?"
I think the battle cry is "Not in the face, not in the face!"
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
why are you spending all that money for a personal FM radio when you can spend 20 bucks or less for a good personal FM radio?
if I wanted a radio I would have gotten one.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
And in other countries it is legal to buy dope and marry a 14 year old. Now try to go back to America with your drugs and new sex partner.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
My friend was bitching about the quality of his ipod on his $1000 sound system so I hooked up the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra. The sound was louder, with less loss of quality. The difference was frankly, amazing. And the Zen cost $100 less.
I knew a guy who was saying some stuff, so we did comparisons and junk, and found out that everything I own or bought or borrowed from another guy totally are better than other things that I don't have.
(this has been a Slashdot product review)