Creative’s CEO disses the iPod shuffle: Them’s fightin’ word

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:21 pm

Creative's CEO called the ipod shuffle "worse than the cheapest Chinese player". He also noted that it is 4 year old technology.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 25/1/.html

Dell's CEO called the iPod "a fad".

http://portableaudio.engadget.com/

[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2005-01-18 15:43 ]

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:43 am

they may not understimate apple. Worst thing you can do when it comes to business wars.

I dunno the Ipod as well as the shuffel, because those products are not my cup of tea. But in case of the mac mini pc industrie has to
make some movements. It's granted that apples OSX is a multimedia os where ms still says windows has benn not intended for multimedia pruposes. 2nd hing is the mac mini is very low on noise. Common windows barebones aren' t.

But let`s await the future. Some concurrence is always a good thing for us customers.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:55 am

I'm not sure about the shuffle's "philosophy"...usually I want to be able to choose what track(s) I am listening to, not be presented with a random choice each and evey time.

Time will tell, I guess.

Royston

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:21 am

there was a time I considered a portable mp3 player for entertainment during bicycle rides.
It would be nice to have something stimulating before one or the other steep hill or to enjoy longer tracks in flat areas etc...
But music via earphones really distracts from traffic, so I prefer to play it safe.
And since those players are far from audiophile anyway it's not really my cup of tea

The Dell CEO's statements are a bit embarassing - what has Dell contributed to technology ? They developed their own system for marketing and logistics, and that's about it.

Not to mention Apple's historic merits, but it was them to get rid of the floppy disk, establish USB, invent FireWire, completely camouflage a 'unix' OS, and ALL of their designs were covered with some delay by the rest of the industry.
Apple may have a 'small' overall market share in 'traditional' systems, but rules 100% of their segment - the Dell (as several other brands) versus overall WinTel figures don't look that bright

Since Apple is unquestioned leader in online and portable music they'd be fools not to adapt their marketing strategy accordingly.
Why TV ads when your target group sees your brand online each and every day ?

btw afaik everyone in the industry is desperately searching for ways to expand their market share - there ARE a lot of systems out already.
With the Mini Apple has found a way to adress exactly this base. No wonder who's getting nervous about this...

cheers, Tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-01-19 06:30 ]

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:21 am

As long as Apple doesn`t feature 3rd developpers with api or sdks - the market for the macmini will decrease more than it has to.

[ This Message was edited by: zer on 2005-01-19 10:13 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:22 am

astroman wrote: Why TV ads when your target group sees your brand online each and every day ?

Woh, a hype like that is indeed much cheaper publicity then TV ads. Can we close these ipod topics here w that?

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:34 am

Counterparts:

You can turn off the random feature

Astroman:

I'm sure the sound quality varies by which bit rate and mp3 player you have and also you need $50.00 Sony earbuds for good sound. The iPod probably sounds good? Not the shuffle.

At0m:

Sorry about the many iPod posts. It seems to be the topic of the moment. I'm getting my Creative Labs Muvo 1 gig flash mp3 player not only to listen to music and other audio during my long walks in the woods but also for data transfer, audio recording and it has a radio. People in the market for a Shuffle might want to know about all the features they are not getting. With all the hype Apple gets some people just assume that Apple is the best. I almost bought an iPod until I started reading these posts.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:44 am

braincell wrote:

You can turn off the random feature

OK, but AFAIK there's no display, so you'd have to memorise the entire order of songs in order to be able to find the one you're after, no?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:01 am

On 2005-01-19 08:34, braincell wrote:
...
I'm sure the sound quality varies by which bit rate and mp3 player you have and also you need $50.00 Sony earbuds for good sound. The iPod probably sounds good? ...

I have a pair of totally unforgiving Sennheisers in that context, which I occasionally take to the record store to check old vinyls - amazing sound quality, but as uncomfortably to wear as it gets.

I never listened to an iPod, but if even a 'regular' computer mag notices that it's output sound quality lacks, there must be something about it...
I know Apple's Harman USB sound device including speakers, stylish but one total piece of crap - don't call me biased, then

cheers, Tom

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:12 am

So that's how they came up with the idea for the random feature!

On 2005-01-19 08:44, Counterparts wrote:
braincell wrote:

You can turn off the random feature
OK, but AFAIK there's no display, so you'd have to memorise the entire order of songs in order to be able to find the one you're after, no?

'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
'>>|' "Damn, not that one..."
...
...
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:50 am

braincell wrote:
So that's how they came up with the idea for the random feature!

I'm sticking with my little minidisk player...combined with the shure earplugs it sounds pertty damn good; better than an iPod methinks. I've tried playing iPods through my HiFi and haven't been terribly impressed to tell the truth.

Royston

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:27 am

You may also want to refer to

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000407028248/

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:10 pm

Apple is just going to exploit the i-hype.

[...]

Regarding quality I feel very content with my iriver mp3 player having superb sound quality also with my AKG headphone.

So, tell us how the iRiver is *not* exploiting iHype again? =P

It's kind of ironic tho, every multimedia-gizmo company is simultaneously bashing Apple AND trying really really really hard to steal/eat/get/bribe/munch some of their marketshare. Apple are definitely doing something right =P.

On another note, anyone at Creative dissing any audio product is kind of funny. They are the absolute masters at desiging circuits that measure well but sound like complete absolute total and uncompromising garbage =P (sorry for any garbage that might feel insulted by this comment =P =P.)

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:47 am