Creative changes strategy

[dskywalker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lip I find it funny how people think the ipod's UI is so great. I think this is just a falicy. There are hardly any features in the UI so perhaps this is one of the reasons that it is somewhat intuitive...I'm not sure they could delete anything as it barely does anything other than play a song... My karma is only a music player but it's far easier to play the song I want and create a playlist on the fly(apend a list, add tracks on the go...etc...). I like the size of my nano but the features suck compared to most other players. LIP

totally agree with Karma having a better UI. iPod's UI is not terrible, but it's definitely not the best (don't get me started on this, I can definitely point out quite a few shortcomings). But back to the topic, creative, that's not much of a strategy over there lol. Making it smaller and more portable sounds good, but you're definitely not in the position to jack up the price and get away with it.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigDub what creative needs to do is to stop pushing out so many players which are roughly the same. given their long experience in making sound cards, making a killer mp3 player should not be difficult.

I agree DigDub. They're obviously aware of branding. The pushed 'NOMAD'** for quite some time then switched to 'Zen'. Thing is they then take a shotgun approach releasing a ton of players diluting the brand name. With respect to Gertrude Stein, there is no Zen there.

**Just for fun I wanted to see if NOMADWorld was still up. Is it just me or is it kinda weird that one of the biggest things they advertise on its homepage is a patent [named Zen though it's really the Nomad]?

 

[DJ Mauler]

whats the deal with the zen sleek color? anyone know if its out already or... im looking for an mp3 player as pretty much a beater so i dont use my h340 day in and day out

 

[haroldpark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by YamiTenshi Oh! Oh! I have an idea! Just make better DAPs! You think it might work?

In all seriousness - no I don't think it would make much difference at all.
Quote:

j/k I've never owned a Creative player so I don't know how their quality is.

Neither have I but I have played around enough to know that I don't like that touch strip interface. seems to have all the worst qualities of Apples click wheel (tendency to overshoot selections, even when being pretty careful) without the good ( go round and round without lifting a finger/thumb).
And yeah they do release too many players which are too similar. Like they are desperately hoping one will somehow become a huge seller.
hh

 

[Behemot]

It does overshoot when you just graze the pad but when you slide finger along it is very precise.
The touch pad works great for me. Although I had the same impression as you when I attempted to use it for the first time.

 

[catscratch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by YamiTenshi Oh! Oh! I have an idea! Just make better DAPs! You think it might work? j/k I've never owned a Creative player so I don't know how their quality is.

The funny thing is, they are making better DAP's. In terms of what counts to us. The Zen Micro has some nice features and sounds very, very good. Even my old 5G micro sounds on par with, and perhaps a touch better than my X5. It's too bad that the Micro only supports .wav as lossless and 5 gigs is not nearly enough for that.

The problem is, nobody other than us cares about sound quality (or lossless support, build quality, line-outs, etc). People want stylish design, idiot-friendly controls so simple that even they can use them, features that don't really matter but are cool to brag about anyway (Hey, yours doesn't show photos? Mine shows photos! Mine plays movies too!), and, well, since you can't brag about FLAC and .ogg support or optical line-outs since no one knows what those are (Huh? Dork!), you can't be getting too technical on the feature set. But most importantly, they want a player that says something about them as a consumer, and has a trendy image attached. It can be an iPod for this very reason, or it can be something other than an iPod for the exact same reason - but the image has to be there.

That's the problem with Creative, IMO. No brand-name recognition. They need to set up a brand name and image first, then cater to it. Every iPod, regardless of variant, is very much an iPod. Creative doesn't have anything like that.

Unless they get their act together they're going to crash and burn. 2 years sounds about right.

 

[Old Dave]

Creative reminds me of American automobile companies. They see something really hot built by the competition (Apple/Toyota), spend some timing trying to make something almost as good, and by the time they put it out on the market, their competition has built something even better, and the cycle starts over. Always a day late and a dollar short. Now, just like American automobile companies they are blaming unfair economics. For auto companies, it is higher labor costs (as if that explains why they are always technologically two steps behind?) and for Creative it is Apples' cornering the market on flash drives. Stop complaining and innovate.

 

[LFC_SL]

^ genius

 

[Old Dave]

And while I'm pontificating (must have forgotten my meds today): The audiophiles who hang out on Headfi etc. may perceive a difference in sound quality between DAPs because it is a hobby, but the reality is that the differences are very small. i have now owned Apple, Creative, IRiver and Archos and while the sound signatures are slightly different I am hard-pressed to say one is materially better (I listen through Ety ER4Ps and UE SuperFi Pros for you snobs who are about to slam me). My point is that sound quality is not going to provide a basis for competing successfully unless someone comes up with something that really differentiates the sound. It is about appearance, ease of use, size and perhaps battery life. Lets face it, there's a reason Apple is winning.

 

[LFC_SL]

^ genius

But you may be banned from here for blasphemy against head-fi

 

[Dominode]

An interesting link (Endgadgets) posted by Bleesingx to start this thread.
I actually took the time to read Rob Rojas' "commentary",then followed the link prompt at the bottom to the original article. And from the original article to other posted links...Following that little excercise,I've concluded that Mr.Rojas apparently suffers from some cognitive reasoning disorder,compounded by some evident anti-Creative bias. Is it merely a coincidence that this inaccurate,sophomoric bashing is "Headline News" on a site whose homepage "Featured Content" section is comprised of 1.)An amusing poetic ditty; 2.) A Podcast link to episode 49; 3.) A link to "Endgadgets' live Apple Keynote coverage"?

If anyone bothers to read the article Mr.Rojas "interprets",then compares it to his "commentary" on the same, you'll likely conclude (This assumes room-temp or higher IQ level,and a modicum of critical reasoning abilities) that this is more closely resembles the disjointed braying of a barnyard critter who can type than the erstwhile analytical synopsis it purports to be.

Perhaps if Mr.Rojas removed the white earbuds clouding his vision,he could have quoted the article directly (thereby shooting himself in the hoof) and stated that Creative's quarterly profits are down,yet gross revenues on the year have increased by 33% because Creative's market share has doubled...

Could someone provide an address or link to a retailer or etailer who can substantiate Mr. Rojas opinion: Quote:

— even Apple has started to price its players more aggressively —

. From what I've read,any dealer who tries to sell a Nano at less than MSRP will be shut off...I guess that's one form of price aggression. Of course the other,more passive-aggressive bite passed to the consumer is built in in the form of advertising and marketing costs. So you've got to give Apple props for design,packaging,and marketing,which is where I believe Creative (and everyone else) lags behind Apple.

Personally,I expect Creative to survive long beyond the slightly apocryphal 2-Holiday season span guestimated here by others. I'd personally like to see what their engineers could do with a 16gig Samsung NAND flash card and some bits and pieces from their Xi-Fi card. Add a clean UI,support for a few more formats,and price it at $400 or less. That could be a premium product that many (many of us on this forum) would gladly buy.

 

[aaroncort]

^ Get ready all of you ipod users to get your 10 dollar check in the mail when apple is sued for pice fixing. I remember when i was about 10 getting a 5 dollar check from nintendo for doing what i think is the same thing.

Also, Its not all about style either but of something a little more untangable and undefinable. Remember go-bots and transformers when you were a kid. Remember how laughable it was to see somebody with a go-bot? Or k-mart brand jeans and not Guess, some other shoe and not nike or british knights. Why the hell was it that we as kids thought that way. I think that adult kitsch is a form of that same behavior. If it were all style the M:robe mr-100 would be a very close follower behind ipod but it failed baddly.

 

[gshan]

Creative does well in Asia, not in US. Apple does well in US, not in Asia. - all correct?

So maybe Creative needs to rethink and be more "creative" with it's product design and marketing here. (sorry that was horrible)

Better yet, let me control the North American operations. I'll buy up Rio's design and label it the Creative Zen Chroma. The company's going south anyways

 

[LFC_SL]

Hell no

Let me take over Creative. I'll buy up Rio's design and label it the Creative Chroma. The company's going south anyways

Sorry to copy, but I did drop 'zen'. Not very "cool" is it?

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFC_SL Hell no Let me take over Creative. I'll buy up Rio's design and label it the Creative Chroma. The company's going south anyways Sorry to copy, but I did drop 'zen'. Not very "cool" is it?

haha, at least we're on the same page and as long as one of us takes over it's all good.