Creative gearing up for a fight!

muckwarrior · 08-12-2005 2:40pm #1

"Apple could be in for a bruising legal fight with rival Creative over the technology used in iPod music players.

Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo has told the BBC he plans to "pursue aggressively" a US patent it owns on a system used to navigate music on digital players." See Here.

Also Creatives new Zen Vision:M was obviously designed to take the iPod Video head on. So what do ye reckon? Do Creative have a snowballs chance in hell of stealing apples crown?

Akula · 08-12-2005 5:43pm

this new device is very disappointing. Fatter/heavier/not as pretty?

Fine it has bigger battery and more media format support but that wont win them the mass market.

Nala · 08-12-2005 6:01pm

It's just gonna confuse people. Why didn't they just put video on the new Zen Sleek Photo? They have a million MP3 players on the go at any one time. If they had just a few, like Apple do, they could put more into marketing each one.

Apple's iPod range.

Creative's range.

Any idea when it's out/price?

muckwarrior · 08-12-2005 6:39pm

Nala wrote:

It's just gonna confuse people. Why didn't they just put video on the new Zen Sleek Photo? They have a million MP3 players on the go at any one time. If they had just a few, like Apple do, they could put more into marketing each one.

Interesting view. Perhaps it's because they try to make different players to suit different peoples needs rather than make one or two players and spend most of the money on convincing people that they need it.

Nala · 08-12-2005 6:55pm

muckwarrior wrote:

Interesting view. Perhaps it's because they try to make different players to suit different peoples needs rather than make one or two players and spend most of the money on convincing people that they need it.

I personally just think they have too many MP3 players on the go.

muckwarrior · 08-12-2005 7:14pm

Nala wrote:

I personally just think they have too many MP3 players on the go.

Only if you include all the flash based players. Otherwise they have the Zen Micro, the Zen Sleek and now the Zen Vision M.

Akula wrote:

this new device is very disappointing. Fatter/heavier/not as pretty?

What makes you say that? It's weight and dimensions are almost identical to the iPod and personally I think it looks better.

KdjaCL · 08-12-2005 7:17pm

Creative sue everyone whenever a song is played.....

Not the 1st time they have done this sued ID for an algorthim in Doom 3 recently and won.

kdjac

Linku · 09-12-2005 12:14pm

muckwarrior wrote:

Only if you include all the flash based players. Otherwise they have the Zen Micro, the Zen Sleek and now the Zen Vision M.

What makes you say that? It's weight and dimensions are almost identical to the iPod and personally I think it looks better.

Actually, "The size of the two players is virtually identical, with the Zen Vision:M only changing it up on thickness — at about twice the iPod’s 0.43-inches".

I knew Creative were going to bring up this patent at some time, but it's just cheeky to launch a near identical product to a competitor, then threaten to sue. They may not even win too, the iPod was already in development when Creative's first MP3 player with that style of interface came out.

Every time I see them do something like this, I laugh at the irony of their name. They need to stick to making soundcards, and stuff I don't have to see.

astec123 · 09-12-2005 12:24pm

It is quite clear to see who here are the fanboys of the apple hardware.

They may not even win too, the iPod was already in development when Creative's first MP3 player with that style of interface came out.

Doesnt stop people telling of trade secrets, but creative will win if the thing was registered first.

Also just to nit pick as usual it is not an MP3 Player, it plays a codec called mp3 but it also plays other codecs, thus the player is a Digital Audio Player or even a DAVP.

carrotcake · 09-12-2005 3:05pm

it's fairly chunky alright

muckwarrior · 09-12-2005 3:35pm

carrotcake wrote:

it's fairly chunky alright

Linky broky.
Yeah the initial review i read said it was the same as the iPod but i've since seen pics of the two and it is quite a lot thicker.

Dave! · 09-12-2005 5:13pm

copy this url into a browser
http://monsternet.org/img/zenvisionmpreview/zenvisionm_appleipod3.jpg

It is fairly chunky... Can this new thing play DivX's and stuff? That's pretty slick, you can fit a good few films on it then... That would rock.

How much are they going for? I doubt I'll get one at Christmas, but maybe in the future.

I think they left it a bit late to bring this out, too... I know at least for my family, we've already decided on what mp3 players to get, etc. It only confuses people.

muckwarrior · 09-12-2005 6:12pm

DaveMcG wrote:

Can this new thing play DivX's and stuff?

It can surely. I also read that it plays movies up to 640x480 so they're watchable on a tv. Apparently it resizes the movies on the fly to fit it's own screen so that theres no re-encoding needed first. Pretty damn nifty!

carrotcake · 09-12-2005 8:08pm

muckwarrior wrote:

Linky broky.
Yeah the initial review i read said it was the same as the iPod but i've since seen pics of the two and it is quite a lot thicker.

monsternet.org/img/zenvisionmpreview/zenvisionm_appleipod3.jpg

c&p into browser

Linku · 11-12-2005 4:42am

astec123 wrote:

Also just to nit pick as usual it is not an MP3 Player, it plays a codec called mp3 but it also plays other codecs, thus the player is a Digital Audio Player or even a DAVP.

Whenever I say "DAP", people say "What?"

cormie · 11-12-2005 11:42am

I don't bother saying DAP, nobody knows what it is, let alone mp3 player, they just think anything that's not a discman and not a walkman is an iPod :rolleyes:

Anyway, is it dap like nap or do you say each letter individually?

Goodshape · 11-12-2005 12:06pm

cormie wrote:

they just think anything that's not a discman and not a walkman is an iPod

Walkman and Discman are Sony brandnames. Shurley what you meant to say was 'portable cassette player' and 'portable cd player'?

And the new Creative looks nice, although from past experience with the original Zen I never EVER want to deal with their software again - so unless I can be guaranteed that it's been vastly improved upon, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. (the PC software I'm talking about here).

Pity, because the players themselves do tend to be quite nice.

cormie · 11-12-2005 12:52pm

Goodshape wrote:

Walkman and Discman are Sony brandnames. Shurley what you meant to say was 'portable cassette player' and 'portable cd player'?

I was just testing you Goodshape! Even though you hadn't posted in the thread before that, I thought, I'll say this and see if Goodshape will notice. You passed, well done;)

Creatives software isn't the best alright, but once you have the music on the player, well that's over and done with. But I don't like creatives nav system either:(

Goodshape · 11-12-2005 3:48pm

cormie wrote:

Creatives software isn't the best alright, but once you have the music on the player, well that's over and done with.

I've accumulated a LOT of music over the years, I'd want something I can be changing files on pretty handy-like.

Thinking about getting a nice small 1gig player or something.. but that's so hard to justify when it's less than 2x the price for about 20x the capacity.. and then just a little bit more for 2x or 3x that.. and then before you know it you're back where you can't afford the bleedin thing anyway. Damn sexy gadgets.

muckwarrior · 11-12-2005 3:52pm

cormie wrote:

But I don't like creatives nav system either:(

I love it. I'd kill to have my old Jukebox firmware on my iRiver.

cormie · 11-12-2005 4:14pm

I think 1gigs are a waste. I'd go for a 20GB at LEAST if I were you, I'm me so I'd be going for as big as I can get, but again that's me, it's different for everyone but I think 1gigs are generally a waste considering cost to capacity ratio. And muck loves the creative nav so again, it depends on the individual.

Creative gearing up for a fight!

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