COOL COMPANIES 2002
PortalPlayer
Product/Service: Digital music platforms
Sector: Media
Website: www.portalplayer.com
iGuts
Executives at PortalPlayer have been proudly circulating a Fox Sports segment in which a reporter follows an L.A. Lakers shopping spree. The players are hunting for iPods, and as one explains, "Shaq said he wasn't going to let anyone sit on the back of the bus unless they had one." It just goes to show, says PortalPlayer CEO John Mallard, "this is the year of the jukebox."
That makes it the year of PortalPlayer too. Mallard co-founded the company in Santa Clara, Calif., in 1999, when, as he recalls, MP3 players could barely hold one CD. So PortalPlayer, wanting to expand this capacity, started making chips that power digital jukeboxes (which today have hard drives that store 2,000-plus songs). The company makes the iPod's chip and develops software that helps keep it and others humming. By Christmas, PortalPlayer says, it will supply the guts to more than 70% of handheld jukeboxes.
PortalPlayer is now moving beyond music. New software and chips will eventually allow iPod-like devices to hold photos, videos, TV shows, and even movies downloaded from a TiVo-like system. When that hits, one thing's for sure: Anyone who doesn't have one won't make it to the back of Shaq's bus.
-- Lee Clifford
