Creative & iRiver Lagging behind

secret_squirrel

Does it seem to ye lot like the rest of the mp3 player makers are further behind apple than ever?

The Ipod Nano seems like everything you could want in a small mp3 player. Unless the others get their acts together and release 4GB+ flash players soon they will fall even further behind.

(Im a zen micro owner before incase anyone was thinking apple fanboy btw)

On a plus note if apple can sell 4Gb of flash memory for $250 then hopefully we'll see a similar amount appearing in phones soon....

tbh the only credible threat I can see to apple right now is a high capacity flash based music phone....available on contract for 250-400ish. But until someone actually releases one I think apple are going to be king for a while yet.

Guy:Incognito

The only reason Apple are ahead is marketing, theres plenty of better products out there than the ipod, its just marketed the best. So realeasing a better product isnt really nessecary, they just have to make it appeal.

Scubadevils

I think the Nano looks excellent and have to admit that I would like one. Apple have done a fantastic marketing job and its one that will take a long time for any competitor to pull market share from. I have used several players over the last couple of years and currently use an iAudio X5 which I love. I had the pleasure of trying a 20GB iPod this week and I have to say the ease of use is excellent and I think that is also key to their success. They are straight forward, simple to use and look great if thats all you want. However, if you need features like direct encoding, radio, voice recorder and more flexibility as to music file types Apple is not the answer. Reality is though that a lot of people don't want those additional features and are happy with a player that looks cool, easy to use and sounds good - iPod in their various shapes and sizes fit that bill.

lafors

But what about apple and there reported numerous mistakes of patenting/registering the names and interfaces?

According to many media sources Apple don't own the rights to their user interface, creative do. Also the name 'nano' is registered by creative too.

I'm not denying they make a great looking, user friendly device, but even a big corparate company like apple has to be careful they don't make mistakes like that.

IPods are for the masses,
IRivers are for the knowledgeable.

Sidane

Eh my iRiver H340 plays music, video, radio, shows photos, USB on the go, views text files etc.....

Ipods don't do half of that out of the box, you need to buy a feck load of accessories which defeats the whole purpose of a portable media player.

Ok if you're talking small mp3 players it's a different story, but they're of no interest to me personally.

As Stekelly said, Apple are owning everybody else with their marketing. But I'll take functionality over style any day of the week.

Scubadevils

Was wondering about that Nano name, thought Creative already had used it alright!

As I said already, its very much an each to their own scenario, it depends on what you want out of your mp3 player. Plenty of people are happy with what Apple have to offer and equally plenty of people are not happy with what they offer so they opt for the likes of iRiver, iAudio etc.

Was not aware of Apple patent issues etc, must read up on that!

lafors

Can't find the original place where I had read it but here is what the register reported:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/08/30/apple_creativepatent/

I agree that different people want different things from their mp3 player, thats why the debate over apple vs iriver vs creative vs all the rest will never have a winner.

As for me I have a Iriver H320 which is way more than I need, I have also used an ipod mini which is good also. I think with the nano they have got the space just right with the 4Gb one. I might just buy one in the US next week.
Keep a look out for my Iriver on FS

OfflerCrocGod

4Gb is nothing get back to me when they have 20Gb nanos

tallus

lafors wrote:

But what about apple and there reported numerous mistakes of patenting/registering the names and interfaces?

According to many media sources Apple don't own the rights to their user interface, creative do. Also the name 'nano' is registered by creative too.

I'm not denying they make a great looking, user friendly device, but even a big corparate company like apple has to be careful they don't make mistakes like that.

IPods are for the masses,
IRivers are for the knowledgeable.

at the risk of pissing off the iriver people.... dont be kidding yourself lafors.. it just pissed me off how smug that comment was.. here's an *functional* av player
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/pma_400.html

jesus_thats_gre

tallus wrote:

at the risk of pissing off the iriver people.... dont be kidding yourself lafors.. it just pissed me off how smug that comment was.. here's an *functional* av player
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/pma_400.html

Shame it looks crap and is bigger that a house...

tallus

it's not big, have you held one in your hand?it's smaller than an ipaq

Edwardius

Does it seem to ye lot like the rest of the mp3 player makers are further behind apple than ever?

The Ipod Nano seems like everything you could want in a small mp3 player. Unless the others get their acts together and release 4GB+ flash players soon they will fall even further behind.

(Im a zen micro owner before incase anyone was thinking apple fanboy btw)

On a plus note if apple can sell 4Gb of flash memory for $250 then hopefully we'll see a similar amount appearing in phones soon....

tbh the only credible threat I can see to apple right now is a high capacity flash based music phone....available on contract for 250-400ish. But until someone actually releases one I think apple are going to be king for a while yet.

Err... ever seen the iriver u10? It's only out in 512 and 1 gig format at the min but plays videos and a shed load of other stuff the nano doesn't, looks the business and will soon be available with an 8gb micro hdd. I think the reason the perception that other companies are behind is due to fanboys and marketing propoganda. Personally, I've nothing against apple and couldn't care either way but lack of awareness of other companies' products is probably due to the lack of them whoring their wares as well as apple have so successfully done.

Scubadevils

Apple had a lot more money to market their products than the other brands. In terms of the other companies being behind, they are when it comes to market share by a huge amount.

I would figure that the move to the Nano is down to flash players being a lot more reliable then HD as there are no moving parts. The problem up until recently and still to a degree is that flash memory costs a lot more than HD. As flash memory improves and becomes cheaper I would think they will all bring out players in as high capacity as possible with flash memory. iAudio have 2GB flash players but they are not available here because of the price - it would sell for around 280 or something :eek:

colin300

In my opinion they aren't really lagging behind. How can you lag behind a company that these days most of there revenue comes from a small mp3 player so all they can do is produce more of the same to stay in business. Creative do a lot of good systems from sound cards to speakers so they by no means lean all there weight on the portable market. I have a creative zen micro and think its very good since it has a radio and u can record if u have the microphone but i use it for what it was made playing music.

I read an article when creative lauched the patent case and if they do infact own the system and the name nano then they will in the end get a hell of a lot of revenue for doing nothing and fair dues to them since Apple nicked the software.