Slashdot Mirror
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."
Make it look great, make it easy to use, and people will buy it. Simple as that, Creative...
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
It's about simplicity.
With regards to the iPod shuffle - yes there are other Flash mp3 players. But for consumers like my mother, who has issues navigating the file system, she doesn't have to (a) rip a cd and then (b) find where her ripped mp3's are to (c) copy them across to her flash player.
With an iPod, she simply sticks in her device to charge, and music syncs between the iPod and iTunes automatically. If she wants to burn a CD she sticks one into the computer and presses a single button: import. She doesn't need to know anything about which codec to burn a cd with (mp3/aac/wmv), or where on the filesystem they end up, or dragging an dropping. It happens for her automatically.
Simplicity and doing what it does do well - is where the iPod shines. If companies want to eat at the iPod market share, it's not about bombarding the customer with a shitload of features. Instead, make a music player, make it easy to import music (this includes minimising any DRM), and make the device SIMPLE to use. I want to be able to explain how it works to my mum in 60 seconds, and to have her "get it". If you can do that, then you've got a product which has a chance.
Software developers and marketers, learn from Apple. Simplicity is king. Don't cause the customer headaches, and they will come back for more.
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
If apple sell more ipods than creative, then creative would lose market share
Uh, no. If A sold 990 units last year and B sold 10, then A has 99% market share and B has 1%. If this year A sells 600 units and B sells 400, A still has sold more than B but A's market share has dropped from 99% to 60% while B's has gone from 1% to 40%.
If you're talking about total market penetration of players in the field, then at the end of last year, A had 99% in the field. At the end of this year, A has 990+600/2000=79.5% of the number of widgets in the field.
Either way, A's market share has decreased even though they've still sold more units than B.
Mr. Sim Wong Hoo, it is a pleasure to write to you.
To familiarize the readers, Creative has a long running bout with the reigning king, the Apple iPod. In fact, just last November, you, Mr. Sim, "declared war" on the iPod. . And Today, you had even more fighting words for the newest addition to the iPod platform, the iPod Shuffle:
I am not here to discuss your comment about the Chinese, nor am I here to bash you personally or your company. I am not even here to talk technical specs, because frankly the lack of a male USB port on your Micro Slim is currently the least of your worries right now.
You are undoubtedly a smart guy, being where you are now. You have sold over 2 million MP3 players last Christmas season, no mean feat at all (vs 4M iPod). There is no doubt that your company Creative is a successful one.
But let me ask you this: You have declared War, but Do you want to WIN this war? Absolutely demolish all that is iPod and steal all the glory? Well then read on because as it stands, this is a War you will live or die for. If you want to live, please consider my Two Cents:
1) Tip #1: Think like the underdog. If you want to be a market maker, you need to grow up and act like one. We all learned about "Perfect Competition" in school, how it meant that there was no excess profit and that the only way to get out of that bind was to differentiate yourself. Right now, iPod is winning because it is differentiable from you (brand name, iTunes integration). How are you winning? What is your battle cry?
For the last two years, Creative has acted just like the "Chinese" me-toos (as you so put down in your latest comment) while Apple has been the market maker through and through. Here are some examples:
When the first generation Apple iPod was released, you still were selling the MP3 jukebox ($480) that could not fast-forward or rewind (true), that looked like a spaceship (definitely), and still took 20 seconds to transfer a song (USB1.0). Quickly, your team raced to build a better looking version, after the success of the big iPod.
The success of the iPod touch interface was also "borrowed" on your Zen-Touch line. And finally, after the Apple iPod Mini was announced, you surprisingly announced the new line of Zen Micro's in 10 colors.
See, I like supporting the "underdog." I like supporting the brightest and most inventive minds. I support Tivoli Audio, Sirius satellite radio, I support many of OS X's small developers' applications, I support the Treo 600, Brian Transeau's music and a million gazillion other small companies out there with insanely great ideas. These are premium but differentiable products that people are willing to spend extra money on.
Make something special, Be somebody special. We want that for your kids right? So incorporate that into your technological children, the Muvo's and the Zen's. Because Nobody honestly lusts to buy a me-too product.
2) Tip #2: Make us shit in o
Apple is the established competitor in this market. It's nice to want to beat Apple (as a secret wish), but Creative needs to focus on making a better player. From the start, this means making it painless to use Creative's product instead of Apple's. Creative needs full compatibility -- plug-in accessories for iPod should work with Creative, and CERTAINLY the iTunes AAC format should work. On the former, remember that cars are now shipping with controls and ports for iPods. Creative needs to be able to plug in to anything an iPod can.
Everyone here talks about the music format (AAC, MP3, Ogg, WMA, etc.), but most people just don't care. Apple does not sell the iPod as an "AAC Player", yet Creative sells an "MP3 Player". These are music players. Quit selling a format. Sell a player.
Creative needs to make a product that gets the stellar reviews of the iPod. When I was considering alternative players to my iPod, including Creative, I was amazed that Creative's players had a significant number of complaints among all the reviewers at places like Amazon. No one wants a player that sounds iffy. If I buy an iPod, I know it'll work.
Two final points: Where's FireWire? USB 2.0 High-speed is supposed to be as fast, but many say it just isn't. Also, will Creative offer incentives on their product? Apple's "Jam and Cram" rebate this past fall meant many people picked up 20 GB iPods for $69 (after $200 rebate, received when buying an iPod with a laptop).
Creative, just focus on what your player does, caring about Apple only as much as you make your product easy to interoperate anywhere an iPod does.
I needed to upgrade the firmware to get the most out of my player
:P
Sounds to me like a bit of a euphemism for "The player Creative shipped was a pile of turd and didn't work as advertised, but a 50MB download later and I am now trying to figure my way through the awkward setup procedure. Here's hoping it works!"
In London, I don't think I've seen a single person with an MP3 player other than an iPod - no kidding - and they're expensive here. I'm sure they exist, but people hide them...like something they're to be ashamed of. So the suggestion that friends are jealous of you sounds a little weak.
(Disclaimer: I, like all the other non-anal-retentives on here, have an iPod. Oldskool 10Gb.)
iqu
First, let me start with a disclaimer: you are an idiot.
...there is nothing out there for them when choosing Apple
...start supporting Ogg Vorbis...
...and WMP...
A point-by-point evaluation:
How many times does Apple need to learn that people don't want lock-in solutions. [sic]
Why do people never learn? Why, no matter how many fucking iPod articles Slashdot posts (and, yea, there are a great many), does there remain a group who simply do not get it? How many times must one of these types be told that no-one (or, should I say "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero") gives a flying fuck about lock-in. They probably don't even know what "lock-in" is. I know I have ranted on about it in the past to non-tech types and they just zone out. Can you blame them?
Where you buy there [sic] player and are locked into their music service.
Your frighteningly schizophrenic spelling aside, you're bandying around that dangerous "lock-in" word again. As various others have noted on here, there do exist paid-for music services which offer MP3s, e.g. allofmp3.com. There are others, but I have not the inclination to look. This aside, the average man on the street doesn't particularly care anyway, but we've already made that point.
This is more subjective, but I can say with certainty that in the UK, the Windows-using masses are restless, tired of spam and spyware and system updates every other day. That Mac mini is looking incredibly tempting. I am sure it is the same way - even more so, perhaps - on the other side of the pond. There is something "out there" when choosing Apple, unless you find the tortious Windows/WMA et al experience pleasurable in some way. (I have already commented on schizophrenic spelling, so I shall leave further interpretation as an exercise to readers...). The iPod's elegance and simplicity appeals to people. Really, it does.
Groan.
I posted at length about this on my blog after OGG and iPod were mentioned in the same thread a while back. It goes back to the "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero" point again. No-one, save the militant/obstinate few, gives a shit about OGG, and, moreover, the only reason that Creative, etc. include OGG support is to try to capture some of the statistically minute militant/obstinate market. That's how marginalised they are - like a pack of mangy stray dogs fighting over scraps.
At the outset you seemed to be typing yourself as anti-lock-in. I'm confused. Most people choose the lesser of two evils, and here you are, proposing that Apple sleeps with the devil.
I'd apologise for the tirade, but, y'know...
iqu >:|
I can't think of any case offhand where "Me-too only with more" has been a successful marketing strategy. This is lazy marketing...
Of course, if you ask existing customers who like and use a product X what they ''want,'' those customers, just having faced a difficult struggle choosing from different price points in a product line will say something like "I'd like to get the features of the top model at the price of the entry model." Or if they're more ambitious, "I'd like twice the storage, half the size, and half the price." (About the only thing you won't hear from iPod owners is "And I'd like it to play the music twice as fast!).
What the strategy never takes into account is that in the time it takes to bring the me-too-but-more product to market, the manufacturer of the product they're gunning for will probably improve their product.
As for "choice," most computer users I know never change the home page of their browser from the one that's set by the manufacturer. Consumers will happily buy into the all-Apple iPod ecosystem and won't care unless it becomes obvious that the PC download music stores have dropped prices to, say, $0.25 per song, or have a grotesquely larger selection.
It may be a shame, but all the issues about lock-in, DRM, etc. don't matter to consumers until they personally get bitten, and so far Apple has taken great care not to bite consumers much.
It also helps that Apple's stuff works. The number of articles I've read about "iPod killers" by PC-centric sources that acknowledge up front that whatever they're testing wouldn't install, or froze, or had DRM authorization problems is astonishing.
A friend of mine who is just an average PC-centric engineer bought an iPod for his wife. Because it was reputedly a good product and easy to use. His wife, who is mildly computer-phobic, had no problems with it. It just worked. A few weeks later he bought one for himself. He likes it.
Another friend who bought some fairly pricey high-end gadget from Creative, I think, reminds me of all the personal computer enthusiasts of the late 1970s. It constantly presents him with challenges, which he enjoys surmounting. He is a chorus director who brings his player and powered speakers to rehearsals to play us things. It never works, and there is always some good reason why he can't play that particular thing that particular day.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
My first harddrive based player was Zen 2.0 and I thought the same thing. "What a steal! So much cheaper than an iPod, more space, etc." Then I was given an iPod as a gift and the second I had it out of the box I knew why iPod is the premier player on the market. It feels good, it looks good, and it works great. Compared to the iPod the Zen felt like having a brick in my pocket, the interface and software sucked horribly, and I couldn't stand the tiny little screen. The only thing the Zen had that the iPod doesn't that I really liked was the remote with LCD, but even that was halfassed. It would only display the track name...no artist information. And when I'm playing a playlist of a few hundred songs I'd like to be able to see that since I can't remember every track by every band.
The battery life of the Zen Micro is actually worse than the iPod mini's. I'm aware that they claim a longer life, but apparently that's not true, at least not to a test (German mobile computing website) Xonio published a week ago:m l
http://www.xonio.com/features/feature_12585175.ht
It's in German, but there isn't a whole lot of text anyway, mostly just data. Festplatte translates to hard drive, in case you're wondering. The iPod mini plays for 8:17, the Zen Micro stops at 7:10. The model with the best battery life-time in the iPod mini form factor is the TEAC MP-1000 (17:39), but then it only sports 1.5 GB so it might as well be flash based. The best hard drive based is the iriver iHP-100 at 18:28.
That said, they don't seem to say anything at all about their testing methods. Granted, it's not that difficult: they probably just took a new-ish player, connected it to AC as long as it wants to be, and then played some music - the same music for all players, obviously, to take into account different power usage at different bit rates and such. But who knows if that's what they did, they don't say. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, though, since their previous reviews always seemed to be quite good.
If anybody has got more battery longevity tests that indicate different results be my guest. I'm on the market for another mp3 player (my old mini-CD based Philips one is just about dead now), and I fell in love with the mini-HD form factor when I saw the first models and now it comes to down to either the iPod mini or the Zen Micro. Currently, I leaning heavily towards the iPod mini - especially due to the fact that it seems to be cheaper in these parts.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
After listening to Apple's Q1'05 Earnings call I have to say that I am concerned that the music stores besides iTunes will soon go the way of so many dot-coms. Here's two reasons:
- Apple stated in the call they have 70% market share in on-line downloads.
- Apple stated in the call they posted a small profit on the sale of now >230,000,000 songs (admittedly, these were not all in Q1'05).
If the $0.99/9.99 model is so razor thin that one company with 70% of the market is eaking by, how can six other companies who share the remaining 30% of the market hope to survive?
Napster seems to be in the lead (don't they have about 10% market share?) but it is primarily due to the subscription model they have, not selling tracks/albums. Sounds like an opportunity for Apple to swoop in and service the sub-market for subscribers to me.
But back on subject, the Creative statement that they have some type of advantage because their player submits to the DRM of half a dozen music stores that are loosing money just says to me that Creative is tightening their seatbelt on a sinking ship.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
She's had it for about 3 weeks now and loves it. Since she usually goes for the pricey stuff I thought we'd be going back for the iPod but she likes this one well enough to want to keep it. I think the added cost of the iPod was a factor. When one item costs twice as much as another, and doesn't offer twice as much, why buy the more expensive item? We can get two Creatives, one for her and one for me, for the cost of one iPod. I think iPod's are way overpriced, but even if they were on par, I haven't seen what makes them so special.
The Creative does everything my wife wants it to do... which is basically play music. Nothing more, nothing less. It shows the song info on the screen for each song and the random works fine. What else do you really need from an mp3 player? Sure I guess it might be nice if it could grill me a steak but it was purchased to do only one thing, and to do that one thing well. It does that. What else could/should we be asking of it?
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
10 million iPods sold.
230 million tracks sold at iTMS
Averages out to a whopping 23 tracks per iPod.
BTW, I have a 1st gen 5 Gb iPod. My SO has an iPod mini. Both are about 80% full. All tracks are from CDs we own.
Dr. Freud
Technology meets Transportation.
a 500 86 platform will have more bang for the buck than a mac mini
:)
You can stamp your feet all you like. Reiterate your earlier statement if you feel the need. It will not make it come true. In most people's eyes, there is more to a computer than clock cycles. See above and below.
I must say that I am thankful that Slashdot allows one to view others' comment history - it allows a much more educated response, even to the most moronic of posters - sir, you are a fine specimen indeed.
More specifically in this case, I note that you battled others in the comments appended to the Mac mini article. And, with a certain glee, I must confess, I note that I am not the only one so rightly dismissing you as an idiot.
I presume it is some kind of denial. In the Longhorn graphics card article's comments, you trumpeted the use of graphics cards to "speed stuff up," finally. Mac OS X has done this for ages - two years or so, IIRC.
And in the Mac mini article, you dismiss resplendent and wholy valid security and reliability concerns with the suggestion that "a bit of education" is all that's needed. As someone noted at the time, your immediate family is not really particularly representative of the entire Windows using world, although it does mean that they are by implication more intelligent than the average moron - good for you.
In any event, this is irrelevant. For most people, Windows has done enough damage - lengthy phone calls to premium rate numbers, assisted credit card fraud, formatted hard drives, rebooted every 60 seconds, given Internet users the world over more shit in their inboxes than they could possibly imagine, simplified DDOSing no end... - not to me, I might add. I am simply the one who has cleared up this kind of mess.
Anyway, all this malaise, coupled with iPod love, means one thing - switching. Maybe even en masse.
iqu