rob1031
100+ Head-Fier
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- Sep 19, 2004
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Hello there. I am doing a business report for my school homework by using SWOT analysis to look at the ZEN touch. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
I know you guys are the specialists, so i thought to let you guys have a look. and tell me if there are anymore threats or anything.
thanks!
if you have time ofcours. heh. sorry for the bad english i think
Internal assessment- strengths:
The Creative Zen Touch has many things that other HDD mp3 players do not have, and also have many functions which excel the competitors that also have them. This hard-drive based mp3 player’s casing is made up of plastic and also a metal backing which gives a strong and safe feeling for the user. The size of the player fits right into the hand and is ideal for portable use.
One thing that the Zen Touch has is the touch pad. The touch pad is heat-sensitive and will only function to something like a finger so it does not scroll by itself or accidentally change the song while its in your pocket. There are a few ways you can use this touch pad: the middle area of the vertical strip is used for normal scrolling to look for songs that are around in that area, and the top and bottom parts are used for extreme fast scrolling to look for an artist down the “Z” category or high up in the “A” category. This is much easier than other players to find songs as u do not have to move your finger again and again to look for the song you want, as you just place your finger on the pad and it automatically scrolls depending on where your finger is.
Battery-life is important to any portable device and the Creative Zen touch shines in this area. With up to 24 hours of battery life, no other player in the market can stand up to it. This feature of long battery-life is ideal for those who want to listen to their music or carry files around while traveling.
A music player has to have good sound quality, especially for those who listen to their music with good headphones/amplifiers. Creative players have a reputation of having better sound quality than the biggest competitor in the market: Apple’s IPod. It seems that Creative’s players have a wider range in frequency, ranging from 20Hz – 20kHz, with deeper bass and much more clarity in highs. The clarity and detail in the player would be essential for audiophiles who need good audio even while walking down the road. This also ties into the advantage of having up to 97 dB Signal-to-noise ratio, and 0.1% Harmonic Distortion Output- as good as many high-end hi-fi systems. One obvious point that the Zen Touch overrides some of its competitors is that it has a custom 4-band equalizer to control how your music sounds, and this is important because everyone perceives the sound differently, and this equalizer lets each person tweak the sound to their liking.
Internal assessment- weaknesses
Despite the Zen Touch’s advantages, every product has its own faults and things that cannot compete with other products, especially the newer ones. It’s design and style does not compare with Apple’s IPod, and some many even argue that all I-River players look better and more contemporary. Style and looks are very important for the “average Joe”, and Creative has not successfully reached these customers.
The marketing factor is very important, and IPod has dominated here. Everybody knows about the IPod, but not the Creative Zen touch. This shows once again that Creative did not reach the “average Joe” and are not as successful, business-wise, as Apple was.
One thing that this player sticks out from the rest is its weight. It is heavier than most of the its competitors on the market; IPod at 5.6 oz, I-River H320 at 6.6 oz, I-River H10 at 3.39 oz, and Rio Karma at 5.5 oz. This would matter to those who would like to bring their mp3 player out to exercise, for example walking, running and possibly biking.
When someone sees the Creative Zen Touch, they may say that it is an IPod copy because of its shape and colour, and also it is “boring”. It does not have the “wow” factor that some other players have, especially for the looks of the player. When a customer comes into the store, the Creative Zen touch would not be a choice for an average customer as it is not a very original design, and it does not stick out from the rest.
Internal assessment- Opportunities
Although this is an older mp3 player that came out a few years ago, there are still opportunities for it. There are more and more people liking music nowadays, as the trend is that rock bands are “cool” and listening to music with headphones, especially good ones, is “cool”. Once the people become audiophiles, they forget about looks and they starting looking into what really is GOOD and not only the looks and for showing off. In this way, the Creative Zen Touch has the opportunity for these new generation of audiophiles as this player has much more functions and abilities that an audiophile would want than other players.
An opportunity that concerns a few countries and not directly related to this product is that the Sterling Pound has risen in value, and the U.S. dollar has dropped. This would encourage people from the U.K. to order/purchase from the U.S., and as Creative has many more outlets and stores in the U.S. than in the U.K, so this would be a potential opportunity for people to purchase the Zen touch.
Internal assessment- Threats
There are many competitors in the portable music player market, and therefore one of the largest threats is that more and more new products are coming out and that the Creative Zen Touch will become “old” and no one will like it.
The IPod 40GB version would be a major threat to the Creative Zen Touch, because it is much more well known, has a better name, and has double the capacity in the hard disk.
The I-River H320 would be a threat as it has a colour screen, can store colour images and look at them while traveling, sound quality is said to be a little better, and is lighter. Some would even consider it “cooler” as it has a black case with a colour screen, and also is from Japan- the “high quality” place.
The Rio Karma is a smaller sized HDD mp3 player and can fit into the hand even more perfectly than the others a it has a groove shape for the fingers to slip in. The great thing about this player that other players do not have is its gapless-playback feature. When listening to live concerts or concept albums you do not want 1/2-second gaps in the middle of each song as it ruins the whole groove of the album. This is a major threat to Creative’s Zen touch.
Creative themselves have just launched a new player called the Zen Micro. Although it cannot compete with the Zen Touch in any of the features, except for looks and the “wow” factor, the marketing of the Zen Micro is overwhelmingly good. People know about the Micro as much as the IPod now and they seem to be selling-out quite well. This is a major threat for the Zen touch, as the average customer would know/like a Zen Micro over a Zen touch.
I-River has just launched a new product a few weeks ago, the H10. This small mp3 player is quite small, as small as a flash player in the market, and claims to have excellent sound quality. The one feature that only this player has is the 32-band equalizer. With 32 bands of EQ you can find the richest, fullest, and most satisfying tone you can have to your ears. On the contrary the Zen Touch only has a 4-band equalizer which may not be enough for the audiophile.
These threats show that the market strategies of the IPod and the Zen Micro overpower the Zen touch, and the equalizer from the I-River H10 beats the Zen touch by miles. If one goes into deep research as an average customer, or as an audiophile, the Creative Zen may not be the choice; therefore the launch of these products are threats to the Zen Touch.
I know you guys are the specialists, so i thought to let you guys have a look. and tell me if there are anymore threats or anything.
thanks!
if you have time ofcours. heh. sorry for the bad english i think
Internal assessment- strengths:
The Creative Zen Touch has many things that other HDD mp3 players do not have, and also have many functions which excel the competitors that also have them. This hard-drive based mp3 player’s casing is made up of plastic and also a metal backing which gives a strong and safe feeling for the user. The size of the player fits right into the hand and is ideal for portable use.
One thing that the Zen Touch has is the touch pad. The touch pad is heat-sensitive and will only function to something like a finger so it does not scroll by itself or accidentally change the song while its in your pocket. There are a few ways you can use this touch pad: the middle area of the vertical strip is used for normal scrolling to look for songs that are around in that area, and the top and bottom parts are used for extreme fast scrolling to look for an artist down the “Z” category or high up in the “A” category. This is much easier than other players to find songs as u do not have to move your finger again and again to look for the song you want, as you just place your finger on the pad and it automatically scrolls depending on where your finger is.
Battery-life is important to any portable device and the Creative Zen touch shines in this area. With up to 24 hours of battery life, no other player in the market can stand up to it. This feature of long battery-life is ideal for those who want to listen to their music or carry files around while traveling.
A music player has to have good sound quality, especially for those who listen to their music with good headphones/amplifiers. Creative players have a reputation of having better sound quality than the biggest competitor in the market: Apple’s IPod. It seems that Creative’s players have a wider range in frequency, ranging from 20Hz – 20kHz, with deeper bass and much more clarity in highs. The clarity and detail in the player would be essential for audiophiles who need good audio even while walking down the road. This also ties into the advantage of having up to 97 dB Signal-to-noise ratio, and 0.1% Harmonic Distortion Output- as good as many high-end hi-fi systems. One obvious point that the Zen Touch overrides some of its competitors is that it has a custom 4-band equalizer to control how your music sounds, and this is important because everyone perceives the sound differently, and this equalizer lets each person tweak the sound to their liking.
Internal assessment- weaknesses
Despite the Zen Touch’s advantages, every product has its own faults and things that cannot compete with other products, especially the newer ones. It’s design and style does not compare with Apple’s IPod, and some many even argue that all I-River players look better and more contemporary. Style and looks are very important for the “average Joe”, and Creative has not successfully reached these customers.
The marketing factor is very important, and IPod has dominated here. Everybody knows about the IPod, but not the Creative Zen touch. This shows once again that Creative did not reach the “average Joe” and are not as successful, business-wise, as Apple was.
One thing that this player sticks out from the rest is its weight. It is heavier than most of the its competitors on the market; IPod at 5.6 oz, I-River H320 at 6.6 oz, I-River H10 at 3.39 oz, and Rio Karma at 5.5 oz. This would matter to those who would like to bring their mp3 player out to exercise, for example walking, running and possibly biking.
When someone sees the Creative Zen Touch, they may say that it is an IPod copy because of its shape and colour, and also it is “boring”. It does not have the “wow” factor that some other players have, especially for the looks of the player. When a customer comes into the store, the Creative Zen touch would not be a choice for an average customer as it is not a very original design, and it does not stick out from the rest.
Internal assessment- Opportunities
Although this is an older mp3 player that came out a few years ago, there are still opportunities for it. There are more and more people liking music nowadays, as the trend is that rock bands are “cool” and listening to music with headphones, especially good ones, is “cool”. Once the people become audiophiles, they forget about looks and they starting looking into what really is GOOD and not only the looks and for showing off. In this way, the Creative Zen Touch has the opportunity for these new generation of audiophiles as this player has much more functions and abilities that an audiophile would want than other players.
An opportunity that concerns a few countries and not directly related to this product is that the Sterling Pound has risen in value, and the U.S. dollar has dropped. This would encourage people from the U.K. to order/purchase from the U.S., and as Creative has many more outlets and stores in the U.S. than in the U.K, so this would be a potential opportunity for people to purchase the Zen touch.
Internal assessment- Threats
There are many competitors in the portable music player market, and therefore one of the largest threats is that more and more new products are coming out and that the Creative Zen Touch will become “old” and no one will like it.
The IPod 40GB version would be a major threat to the Creative Zen Touch, because it is much more well known, has a better name, and has double the capacity in the hard disk.
The I-River H320 would be a threat as it has a colour screen, can store colour images and look at them while traveling, sound quality is said to be a little better, and is lighter. Some would even consider it “cooler” as it has a black case with a colour screen, and also is from Japan- the “high quality” place.
The Rio Karma is a smaller sized HDD mp3 player and can fit into the hand even more perfectly than the others a it has a groove shape for the fingers to slip in. The great thing about this player that other players do not have is its gapless-playback feature. When listening to live concerts or concept albums you do not want 1/2-second gaps in the middle of each song as it ruins the whole groove of the album. This is a major threat to Creative’s Zen touch.
Creative themselves have just launched a new player called the Zen Micro. Although it cannot compete with the Zen Touch in any of the features, except for looks and the “wow” factor, the marketing of the Zen Micro is overwhelmingly good. People know about the Micro as much as the IPod now and they seem to be selling-out quite well. This is a major threat for the Zen touch, as the average customer would know/like a Zen Micro over a Zen touch.
I-River has just launched a new product a few weeks ago, the H10. This small mp3 player is quite small, as small as a flash player in the market, and claims to have excellent sound quality. The one feature that only this player has is the 32-band equalizer. With 32 bands of EQ you can find the richest, fullest, and most satisfying tone you can have to your ears. On the contrary the Zen Touch only has a 4-band equalizer which may not be enough for the audiophile.
These threats show that the market strategies of the IPod and the Zen Micro overpower the Zen touch, and the equalizer from the I-River H10 beats the Zen touch by miles. If one goes into deep research as an average customer, or as an audiophile, the Creative Zen may not be the choice; therefore the launch of these products are threats to the Zen Touch.
