Rio Brand Closes Doors

Castar writes "In a press release today, D&M Holdings announced the end of the Rio brand. Rio had a troubled history, but were responsible for the first mass-market MP3 players as well as more recent popular players such as the Rio Karma. This closing follows the sale of Rio's IP to Sigmatel, maker of chipsets for many audio players, including the iPod Shuffle." From the release: "The company's decision to exit the Rio business followed a determination that the mass-market portable digital audio player market was not a strong enough strategic fit with the company's core and profitable premium consumer electronics brands to warrant additional investment in the category. The original goal of strategic advantage with wholly-owned and branded portable client devices was reconsidered in the context of the costs required to effectively scale and compete in this sector, where competition has grown intense. D&M Holdings will now focus all its resources on the core Premium AV business and advanced content server products."

Comments

Re:A little secret

[Oliver Defacszio]

This is a fantastic post, and it's the difference between Apple and everyone else. Apple will never, ever make the absolute best of anything, but the mix of technical competence and style is what has more than tripled Apple's stock since the introduction of the iPod.

The overdesigned problem is everywhere. I have a 2004 model Clarion CD player in my car. It works well and sounds great, but it has a whirling animated chaser on the display that doesn't appear to do anything but scream "I am technologically impressive!" It looks like a "CD is playing" icon, but continues to spin as long as a CD is physically loaded, despite the current function of the player. Since most reasonable people have a CD loaded at virtually all times, even when listening to the radio or an auxiliary input, the chaser spins relentlessly, long into the night.

A big deal? No. Gimmicky and pointless? Yes. That LCD space could have been used to allow longer song titles without scrolling or whatever, but, instead, the geek-factor again overwhelmed practicality. If Apple designed automotive products, I guarantee this wouldn't be the case.

Nobody says that visual appeal has to equal brutal simplicity, but I don't need to be reminded that I am living in THE 21ST CENTURY! every time I pick up a technological device.