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rr "Is it your way or no way about everything? "
It seems that is your attitude about MP3 players. Just because your small group of friends do not own Mp3 players, means Mp3 players ar not popular and growing more popular every year? By that logic, because you own an old Porsche, means old Porsches are in many of the worlds driveways? LOL
A main focus of e.Digital for years has been Mp3 players, yet you are a Mp3 player sceptic? And still a shareholder??? LOL
Btw, I would have responded to you yesterday, but I am on a 3 post a day leash by the powers that be. The brand of the Mp3 players are e.Digital labeled, two of which are Digitalway products.
OT: Trojans looked good yesterday. Those pretenders playing Sunday are lucky things worked out so they play one another....
USC #1!
rr
My family has three. Here are US Mp3 sales for October. Seems you need to get out and meet more people...lol
MP3 SALES
Total October 2003
Dollar Volume $23,312,000
Brand____________________Unit Share
1. Apple____________________24.8%
2, IRiver____________________12.4%
3. RCA_____________________11.2%
4. Rio______________________10.5%
4. Digitalway_________________9.3%
Korean mp3 players lead the way
Korea's mp3 player makers now have the lead in global market share, says Digital Chosun Ilbo here.
Why's that?
"Korean companies' technology and design are better than that of their U.S and Japanese competitors," says the report. "Only Korean makers can produce MP3 players half the size of a business card and with a sophisticated design, which can store as much as four hours of music."
But Korean producers shouldn't get too cocky, says the newspaper, because, "Chinese competitors are following close behind, with an edge in price competitiveness. Sony has also stepped up its development of MP3 players."
Korean companies had 35% to 40%of the global market in 2003 with Digital Way and Reigncom boasting the largest market share in the United States and in the European Union.
"Best Buy, an electronic goods chain store with 650 locations across the United States, is the first target for makers of electronic equipment wanting to make inroads into the country," the story continues.
"In a Best Buy store on Mira Mesa Boulevard in San Diego on Dec. 3, Digital Way's 'mpio' MP3 players were sold out, while other companies' players were still on the shelves. A sales person said that Korean MP3 players are popular because they have a beautiful design and good quality, as well as a low price. Insufficient supply is the main problem, he added."
Digital Way accounts for 22.4% of U.S. market and 37.2% of the Canadian market, dominating the market for MP3 players in both countries, states Digital Chosun Ilbo.
"Korean MP3 player producers have been successful in part thanks to the great popularity of the Internet in Korea since the late 1990s," it adds.
"As the exchange of music over the Internet and email gained popularity, the demand for small portable audio equipment dramatically increased. In Japan, where the Internet has been comparably less popular, companies have overlooked the growth potential of MP3 players and have been following Korean companies in the world market."
(Wednesday 31 December 2003)
iPod #1: Apple Continues MP3 Player Dominance In November
by Brad Gibson
December 30th, 2003
(I only have 3 posts per day..so three articles on this page)
Apple continues to dominate the overall portable MP3 player market in the US with the 10GB iPod the number one selling device leading into the Christmas buying season, according to final numbers just released by industry intelligence group IDC.
The monthly retail numbers show the Apple US$299 10GB iPod "virtually neck and neck in terms of unit sold" with the US$140 Digitalway 128MB player for first and second place respectfully, according to company analyst Steve Baker. The US$399 20GB iPod was third, followed by the US$140 128MB iRiver player. The US$499 40GB iPod rounded out the top five best sellers.
OVERALL BEST SELLING MP3 PLAYERS FOR NOV. 2003 (by units)
10GB Apple iPod
128MB Digitalway
20GB Apple iPod
128MB iRiver
40GB Apple iPod
Of most interest in the overall best sellers category was the fact more expensive, high capacity players from Apple dominated the industry group with a smattering of cheaper, smaller capacity players interspersed. "This category alone tells you consumers are very much divided over what they want - cheaper players to play a small number of songs or more expensive players to house the entire library," said Baker.
In terms of unit sales for MP3 players below US$100, which are mostly flash-memory devices of 128MB or less, IDC reported the top industry leaders were iRiver, RCA, Rio, Samsung and Digitalway, in no particular order.
In the US$150 and up category of MP3 players - mostly 512MB or higher in capacity - Apple controlled 60% of the market, in terms of units sold, Baker said, with Creative Technology a distant second, followed by players from Rio, RCA and Arcos.
BEST SELLING MP3 PLAYER MAKERS OVER US$150 (by units)
Apple
Creative Technology
Rio
RCA
Arcos
Players below US$100 accounted for 40% of units sold in the overall MP3 player market, with those over US$150 accounting for 60%. Flash-based models made up one-third of all sales in November; hard drive-based models took the other two-thirds.
62% of dollars spent on MP3 players went towards those selling at US$150 or more, IDC reported. Of that amount, 80% were used to buy hard drive-based MP3 players, which Apple dominates with the iPod.
In terms of the overall MP3 market in the US, MP3 player sales are continuing to grow at a staggering rate, Baker said. "Overall market growth from November of this year to that of 2002 was 70%," he commented. Numbers recently released by Jupiter Research showed growth has almost doubled in the past year to more than 3.5 million units. Jupiter is predicting 50% growth in the MP3 player market for the next three years. By 2006, the company estimates the installed base of players will top 26 million.
Numbers from IDC only represent the United States and are final figures.
iPod at center of buzz
Rumors predict new affordable player at Macworld
Chronicle Staff Tuesday, December 30, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A week before the 2004 Macworld Expo in San Francisco, analysts and Web sites that track Apple Computer Inc. are speculating that the company will unveil a line of smaller, cheaper versions of its popular but pricey iPod digital music players.
An Apple spokesman, citing company policy, declined to comment Monday on rumors posted on several Mac user Web sites that the Cupertino computer-maker is set to unveil 2-GB and 4-GB iPods that will start at about $100.
Apple has found success selling 10-GB, 20-GB and 40-GB models, even though their $300 to $500 price tags are a barrier to many consumers.
Sites such as AppleTurns, MacRumors, AppleInsider and ThinkSecret have cited unnamed sources indicating Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs will unveil the new mini-iPods, along with new colors for regular iPods, at the Macworld Expo. Jobs is scheduled to deliver the opening keynote Tuesday at Moscone Center.
Silicon Valley analysts who follow Apple have also been speculating on a new mini-iPod based on comments emanating from Apple employees, said Rob Enderle, president of the San Jose research firm Enderle Group.
The existing iPods have already given Apple the lead in the portable digital audio player market and are the centerpiece of Apple's iTunes Music Store. By Oct. 16, Apple had sold 1.4 million iPods.
But it would make sense for the company to fill out the lower end of the iPod product line to counter lower-cost MP3 players from a variety of competitors, Enderle said.
Apple might also be interested in an iPod with added multimedia features, such as the ability to display digital photos and video, he said.
Similar portable audio-video-photo devices are being developed by Apple rival Microsoft and several consumer electronics-makers, and combination audio- digital photo devices could be introduced at the impending Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is also scheduled for next week.
So "the timing would be ripe' for Apple to announce its own multimedia player plans at Macworld, Enderle said.
New smaller iPod is going for a song..
THE most popular hi-tech toy this Christmas - the Apple iPod - is set to be upstaged by a smaller bargain priced version.
The iPod was a worldwide success before the festive season and became the ultimate celebrity gadget with the Beckhams, Robbie Williams and Ronan Keating all enthusiasts of the digital jukebox.
But Apple has announced it is unveiling a smaller version which will cost around £65 - £185 cheaper than the current bottom-of-the range model.
The newer iPods will hold up to 800 songs and have different coloured cases from the current white iPods which hold up to 10,000 songs.
Before Christmas, high street chains such as John Lewis said the iPod was flying off the shelves. Many stores had to take post-Christmas orders from frustrated shoppers.
The Apple iPod can also hold digital camera images and be used as a dictation machine.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the new iPods at an exhibition in San Francisco next week.
ReignCom Silences Sony in MP3 Market
By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter
``Sorry, Sony!¡¯¡¯
``Who would dare say that?¡¯¡¯ would be the first reaction upon hearing such a defiant expression about the world¡¯s top electronics giant.
Surprisingly, it was the theme of an Internet advertisement by ReignCom, a local MP3-device startup company that was founded back in 1999. It wasn¡¯t a bluff. In the global portable audio device market, the old domination of handy CD and cassette players, like Sony¡¯s Walkman, was being succeeded by MP3 players.
ReignCom is now the top MP3-player manufacturer in South Korea with a 50 percent market share, which is even larger than the country¡¯s largest electronics giant, Samsung Electronics. The company also controls more than 25 percent of the global MP3 market _ an astounding feat accomplished in just four years.
The company is not well known as global players like Sony, Sharp or Panasonic. It is because even until just a few months ago, ReignCom couldn¡¯t have afforded to put up advertisements on TV or newspapers. For ReignCom, Internet was the only channel for promoting its product.
On Dec. 19, ReignCom emerged as a Cinderella on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. The company went public with its opening stock price soaring to 94,000 won, more than double the 47,000 won initial public offering price.
Its stock price skyrocketed to its highest level at 117,800 won per share early last week. As of yesterday morning, the stock price hovered at 92,200 won, about 184 times the 500 won face value per share. The company issued 6.5 million shares, 24 percent of which is owned by ReignCom president and chief executive Yang Deok-joon.
Ironically, before founding ReignCom, Yang worked at Samsung Electronics for 20 years. His company started off distributing semiconductors and as an engineering solution developer, but then began making MP3 players with Yang¡¯s confidence that devices that can replay visual, sound and other digital media on the go would be the next big hot-ticket item in the electronics industry.
Setbacks Behind the Legend
Securing talent was the greatest difficulty in ReignCom¡¯s short history, Yang relates. He said the company¡¯s focus is on creating a work environment where employees could full express their creativity.
Yang, 52, founded ReignCom with initial capital of 300 million won in January 1999, and after several months, with the beginning of the global IT trend, outstanding researchers and engineers joined the company.
After a series of obstacles, the company succeeded in attracting $5.6 million from AV Concept, a Hong Kong-based electronics firm, and permission for using a factory site in China. The collateral for the foreign investment was the superior technology and high growth potential of ReignCom.
The company was also chosen as an official partner by Microsoft early this year for the U.S. software giant¡¯s Media2Go project to develop a next-generation portable digital device, along with global electronic giants like Samsung Electronics and Sanyo.
``By setting the focus of our business on globalization since the very beginning, we rapidly expanded our distribution channels throughout the world. It contributed greatly to maximizing our profits and in fostering the brand power of iRiver,¡¯¡¯ said Yang. ReignCom develops its innovative MP3 technologies in South Korea, outsources the exterior product design in the United States and manufactures the products in China.
ReignCom began producing MP3 units under its own brand name ``iRiver¡¯¡¯ in January 2002. Before then, it supplied its MP3 products to U.S.-based SonicBlue, in the form of original design manufacturing (ODM) under the brand name Rio, since it had difficulty securing distributors for its own products.
Slick design was another key factor behind ReignCom¡¯s success. Yang entrusted the design of its iRiver product line to INNO Design, a design firm in California¡¯s Silicon Valley. Its iRiver products carry a description reading ``Design by INNO¡¯¡¯ and ReignCom pays royalty for the firm¡¯s innovative designs.
The prism-style iRiver MP3 player ReignCom rolled out in September last year was a shocker for the global MP3 industry then. The prism-style model, which was the first MP3 model to sell more than 1 million units, is still gaining in popularity around the world.
``There are professionals in any field. We fitted our technology into the professional designer¡¯s design. That is the competitive edge of our technology,¡¯¡¯ said Yang.
``I believe iRiver is the first digital product that incorporated a design firm¡¯s logo into the products. It is an innovative marketing scheme by ReignCom to promote iRiver as a upscale digital gadget,¡¯¡¯ he added.
On the back of innovative design and superior technological competitiveness, Reigncom is expecting record profits in 2003. The MP3 player maker anticipates its net profit to reach 42.5 billion won on annual sales of 230 billion won. Its net profit is about 430 percent greater than the 8 billion won it posted in 2002 and sales are up 187 percent from 80 billion won.
On the back of the world¡¯s first 1-gigabyte flash memory unit, an iRiver MP3 player, which sells more than 30,000 units a month on the domestic market alone, the company is targeting 65 billion won in net profit on 380 billion won in sales next year.
``An era of consumer electronics that merges visual, telecommunication and computer digital technologies will emerge in the future. Recognizing such market needs, we will develop innovative digital convergence products and lead the creation of a brand new digital lifestyle,¡¯¡¯ said Yang.
He said the company plans to introduce around 10 portable multimedia players with color TFT-LCDs and large memory capacities of between 40 to 80 gigabytes that can reproduce audiovisual media at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early next year.
Korea¡¯s MP3 Player Exports
Meanwhile, the Electronic Industries Association of Korea (EIAK) said that South Korea¡¯s MP3 player exports increased by 44.2 percent in the first 10 months of the year, thanks to enhanced product quality.
Outbound shipments of MP3 players in the January-October period stood at $128 million, compared with $88.9 million in the same period last year.
Asia-bound shipments accounted for $62 million, with Europe and North America accounting for $33.9 million and $28 million, respectively.
Hong Kong topped the list with $36.6 million, followed by the United States and Japan with $24.6 million and $17 million, respectively.
Samsung Electronics and Digitalway also predict their cumulative MP3 player sales to top the 1-million mark by the year¡¯s end this year.
Sticking it to buyers and sellers...Great guys LOL eom
The email in part was referring to the playing in order as on the CD "problem" as addressed by austonia, as well as the 20 album limit playlist. As far as what happens next...I assume is up to Gateway
Thank you for your e-mails,%$%^. New firmware has been given to Gateway to address this and other issues. Also, the playlists are automatically created when an album is transfered through Windows Media Player.
Robert
BTW That should have been $449 for the new iRiver 1GB player. Under $100 by Apple? Doubt it........
First they complain that most music on albums is record company filler BS just to rip off the consumer and line the pockets of the evil labels...now they are concerned that it cant be listened to in the order the artist intended? LOL
Used to be with Bantam Wom some 2004 CES awards already (as posted earlier)
http://www.auviworld.com/
iRIVER just announced 1GB Flash player 4449
No way EVEN with Chinese version on 1GB HD will they get a 1-4 GB ipod for 100 bucks or so. Total BS IMO
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/ifp-599t.asp
OT: Anyone know where Joe the janitor went? He really knows where the sH^t is buried. Unbelieveable.............
OT: Britain sells out of iPODS
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/8306446?source=Evening%20Standard
Report Says Nasdaq Exploring Merger With NYSE(2)
Updated: 07:28 AM EST Followup to a previous post
NEW YORK (Dec. 23) - Nasdaq, the 32-year-old electronic market suffering from the end of the Internet boom, has asked the New York Stock Exchange to explore the possibility of a merger, according to a published report.
Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld approached NYSE officials with the idea about three weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unidentified sources close to the situation.
The concept is at a very preliminary stage and no formal proposal has been made, the sources told the Journal. Greifeld and interim NYSE chairman John Reed were not available for comment and a Nasdaq spokeswoman would not confirm the report to the Journal.
Nasdaq, which rode high on booming technology stocks during the late 1990s, has struggled to recover from the collapse of many dot-com firms beginning some four years ago.
Meanwhile, the NYSE is in the midst of a pay scandal sparked by revelations that former chairman Dick Grasso had been given a compensation package of nearly $188 million this year.
Any merger between Nasdaq and the NYSE would be subject to approval by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission since both entities are classified as self-regulatory organizations.
A Nasdaq-NYSE merger would likely be welcomed by Wall Street firms, which could potentially save money by allowing them to combine their two trading desks into one and pay membership fees to one marketplace instead of two.
12/23/03 05:28 EST
OT: Move over, iPod, here comes Huaqi's Aigo
It's a range of new, sleek, inexpensive MP3 players that the Beijing-based company claims is currently the top-selling brand in China
Published December 22, 2003
By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,103249,00.html
HERE comes a series of sophisticated and stylish MP3 players which could give other MP3 players - including those from Creative Technology and Apple Computer - a run for their money.
Made in China: Some Aigo models offer the ability to record directly from a phone
The new gizmos sell under the brand name 'Aigo' and come from Beijing-based Huaqi Information Digital Technology. Huaqi has more than 20 MP3 models and will initially introduce five of them here for between $170 and $300 each. Some of the models offer the ability to record directly from a phone and come with a removable SD card storage; the top-line MP3 player offers 256 MB of storage.
In the past three years, Huaqi's MP3 players have overtaken international brands in China and is now the top-selling brand there, says Tony Wu, managing director of the Singapore subsidiary, Huaqi IT (Singapore). 'We control 40 per cent of the MP3 player market in China and sell around 80,000 devices every month,' he told BizIT.
Initially, the company will just market its MP3 players here. But in six months it wants to launch its full range of portable storage devices and other peripherals in Singapore. 'We do not want to come in with all our products at one go as this may create confusion in the minds of the customers,' Mr Wu said.
By March next year, the company will introduce its MPEG-4 players in Singapore. 'We have two or three models that we are testing in China,' Mr Wu said. 'If the tests go well we will introduce them in Singapore by March. This is our first foray out of China. In future we will be using Singapore as a training base before sending executives to the US and Europe. Singapore is a springboard for us to move into the US and European markets.'
Mr Wu said Huaqi will invest around $5 million over the next three years in Singapore and plans to eventually employ about 100 people. 'Of these, about 20 to 30 would be engaged in R&D for new products.'
Huaqi created the Aigo brand this year for the international market. The name Aigo is the romanised version of 'Patriot', which is the brand's name in China's domestic market.
Mr Wu said Huaqi hopes to break the perception that China-made products are cheap and of low quality. Huaqi has more than 1,000 staff, of which 200 are involved in R&D. 'What differentiates Aigo from the competition is its high quality and its attention to design and aesthetics,' he said. 'It is also priced about 10 to 20 per cent below similar Japanese and Korean products.'
Huaqi set up a subsidiary in Singapore in October and has appointed Ban Leong Technologies, one of this year's Enterprise 50 winners, as its distributor here.
Huaqi was founded in 1993 and is a computer peripherals company which has been growing at 60 per cent every year, Mr Wu said. Last year the company grossed one billion yuan (S$205 million) in revenue and expects to hit 1.6 billion yuan this year.
That unit (or variant) has been out since CES. Just now hitting the marketplace. Here is a review .....
http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/2001-6450_7-0.html?tag=cnetfd.glnav
lickily
CNET has had the unit for a week. A review of Gateway DMP X20 should be out next week...eom
MP3 SALES
If Digitalway not #1 Flash company, then who makes IRiver, RCA and Rio?
Total October 2003
Dollar Volume $23,312,000
Brand____________________Unit Share
1. Apple____________________24.8%
2, IRiver____________________12.4%
3. RCA_____________________11.2%
4. Rio______________________10.5%
4. Digitalway_________________9.3%
hollywoodhills
They will be "soon" .....No BS
Getting Phat: A Mobile Way to Listen to Music
December 16, 2003
Stephen Williams:Newsday
PhatNoise is the name of today's product, a rather lyrical description that seems appropriate to this season when we eat a lot.
PhatNoise (as in fat noise) is a digital- based audio system designed for mobile environments, one that will soon migrate to the home as well. I tried out the player in a Volkswagen Passat, because VW and Audi, both part of the Volkswagen group, are among the first car companies to actively promote PhatNoise and offer it as a new-car option. The system is designed to work in other makes - Honda and BMW are two - as well as with many existing head units and aftermarket audio decks from Kenwood, among others. List price is $795, with aftermarket systems starting at about $500.
The device is essentially three hardware components: a slotted box (the "Phatbox") that sits unobtrusively, like a CD changer, in the vehicle's trunk or under a seat; an iPod-esque 20-gigabyte hard drive housed in a cartridge that slips into the box; and a USB-connect cradle for downloading music to the cartridge from a PC.
In operation, PhatNoise is transparent. If you know how to program a CD player and operate a car stereo, the learning curve for PhatNoise is about five minutes. And in the VW, the Phat unit can easily be switched over (or off) to access the car's conventional premium Monsoon audio system and its CD or AM or FM modes.
On the road, PhatNoise is a logical transition from tapes and CDs in the way that MP3 devices, iPods and even the newer, less expensive range of MiniDisc products represent the trend in portable listening.
Of course, it's possible to wirelessly transmit music from a portable through a car's FM radio, or to use a cassette adapter (there's plenty of cassette players still on the road - Mercedes still builds one into most new cars) that plugs into the player's headphone port. But these jury-rigged solutions are sonically marginal at best, awkward, and a pain to use.
PhatNoise is more elegant. Before ignition and liftoff in the eight-cylinder-powered Passat, I transferred a few CDs' worth of tunes into the Phat cartridge using the Linux-based software (so farfor Windows PCs only) that came with it. The music-transfer system, which compresses tune files into the MP3 format (PhatNoise also supports WMA and WAV files), behaves much like other "burn" programs, and it allows users to create playlists that can be a single artist, album or genre or a mix of all ofthose.
The Phat software also does something special, by generating a speech file for each playlist. When you access music in the car, the voice reads the name of the playlist, like "Here's Bruce!" or whatever you choose to call the list. The "announcer," though, sounds like he's speaking through a towel.
In the car, however, PhatNoise isn't that elegant. In operation, one hits buttons on the VW's dashboard control panel to browse selections. When the voice says the name of the playlist, do nothing and it plays. More button-pushing advances through more songs. Despite the handy-dandy reference card that's supposed to get listeners to "Werewolves of London" quickly, the Phat can be frustrating and - a more serious issue - distracting.
I also had some sound-quality problems with the material I installed on the PhatCart, which included R.E.M. and Springsteen. Sibilance was apparent on some cuts, and occasionally the music would lose depth and go flat. I played back the digital files on my PC that had been transferred and noticed no aberration in the sound. I suspect some glitch in the transfer process on my equipment, since music preloaded on the test unit was fine.
Entertainment systems like PhatNoise are gaining momentum in the mobile market. At theextreme are DVD "dream systems" with multiple speakers and monitors that drop down from the roof liner. Acura recently became the first company to include a multichannel DVD- Audio setup in the new TL model. Some of these options are too fast and furious to attract the masses today, but they're dead on course for tomorrow.
Stephen Williams can be reached at steve.williams@newsdaycom
OT: PortalPlayer Photo Edition paves way for Picture iPod
By Tony Smith
16/12/2003 at 09:24 GMT
PortalPlayer, the company behind the hardware, software and processor technology that powers Apple's iPod, will soon launch a upgraded version of its chip/firmware combo that paves the way for a Photo iPod.
PortalPlayer Photo Edition will support synchronising digital photos between portable devices and host PCs, along with on-device playback, according to CEO Gary Johnson, interviewed by EE Times.
The Photo Edition comprises new, 180nm system-on-a-chip silicon based on two 80MHz ARM cores, plus a real-time OS updated with photo handling code that supports the JPEG and Motion JPEG picture formats. The device's software package supports picture manipulation features like editing, rotating, cropping and red-eye correction. It can also allow users to add music to slide-shows. All these features handily replicate functionality provided on the desktop by Apple's iPhoto.
The platform supports TV output, USB 2.0, Firewire and Ethernet, along with high-resolution colour LCDs. In addition to small form-factor hard drives, it can use Cornice's new 1in micro drive system. PortalPlayer has also incorporated support for a two- to three-megapixel digicam into the unit.
Interestingly, PortalPlayer has support for multiple Digital Rights Management (DRM) regimes, enabling device manufacturers to support a variety of online music services. It's unlikely that Apple, as a provider of such a service, would add that feature to future iPods, but it paves the way for iTunes Music Service support in non-Apple devices.
Speculation the Apple is working on a video iPod has been a constant topic on Mac fan forums, but one CEO Steve Jobs has dismissed a couple of times this year. But if the time isn't right for a portable video player - it can be done, but do punters really want to watch movies on a tiny screen when notebooks provide a far better portable playback experience? - the boom in digicams suggests that a portable photo library is a logical follow-on for the iPod line.
With its PDA-style calendar and contact book functionality (courtesy of Apple's iCal and Address Book software), adding photo support would broaden the iPod's appeal as a portable personal data carrier. It also helps to continue to differentiate the Apple product from the horde of music-only clones the compact, hard drive-based machine has spawned.
As for PortalPlayer, the company needs to work quickly. Microsoft's attempt to muscle in on the sector, the Portable Media Center platform, is due for release during the second half of 2004, with devices available next Christmas. Based on Windows CE .NET, PMC offers photo library functionality, TiVO-style TV recording and video playback, as well as music. Microsoft has already won the commitment of Creative, Viewsonic, iRiver, Sanyo, Samsung and Tatung.
PortalPlayer has the advantage of a more tightly integrated software and hardware system, but just as Apple's vertical integration has led to advantages and big disadvantages as the computer market has evolved, Microsoft's horizontal approach may cause PortalPlayer problems.
The real loser, however, will be the likes of PalmSource and PalmOne. All these technologies will, we reckon, define the 21st Century PDA - a portable personal data archive, kept fed from a computer but allowing individuals to take all their most precious information with them wherever they go. Even without direct data entry, these devices will provide a powerful alternative to today's PDAs, already under threat from smartphones. And both Microsoft and Apple have powerful handheld data entry technologies they can add to their respective offerings.
Many people want single devices, but quite a few don't. But the number of handhelds they are willing to carry around isn't large. A phone, certainly, and probably one other device. Increasingly that second unit will be a hard disk-based machine that holds not just PIM data, but music, photos and probably video too. And a lot of it. ®
Matt
I have learned my lesson and will not pollute your site with comments about posters who post negative comments about companies I am invested in. I have also put the two worst offenders on ignore. Thank you for considering letting out of phish land.........
Matt
Please let me out.... I hate the smell of phiish.......
He likes young boy phish......eom
Matt
First and last time in the hooscow. What or whom do I have to lick or kiss to get outa here?
I repent. Set me free!
More than one alias? No way. I did suggest some unflattering things about a certain poster. That must be it. I did erase most right after posting...but I guess not quick enough.
Again, I will respect the TOS. Let me know when I am allowed to continue posting on the e.Digital board. Thank you.
I will behave I will behave I will behave.....eom
There are many stockscurrently available ; which match that today
Seems like those would be good companies for you to spend time posting.
"I will just have to remain shocked" How about some shock treatment................. LOL
You are talking about ethics??? Geezz I have heard it all now...
So do ducks on rafts.....eom
"define what you consider "insignificant"? CASSANDRA! eom
Firmware upgrades and support. Possible the new OEM's just wanted to make sure in this rapidly developing tech world, e.Digital would be around for years to keep the products the OEM's are buying/selling up to date and cutting edge? Dooooh!