MP3 Player War Begin, Says Creative

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/11/17/creative/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/11/17/creative/index.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Creative Technology Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Sim Wong Hoo told reporters in Singapore his company plans to spend US$100 million in 2005 in a marketing war aimed squarely at Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod. "The MP3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war," Hoo said. Hoo's comments came at a recent press event to celebrate the release of Creative's Zen Micro, a 5GB portable music player, according to a recent Reuters report. Creative in 2005 hopes to displace Apple as the top seller of MP3 players worldwide."</i><br /><br />Creative has thrown down the glove. And the first legitimate challenger to the iPod steps up to do battle. :twisted: I have to say this for the Zen Micro; of all the Windows Media based players I've looked at on the market, the Micro is the only one I find exciting, and I believe this product will "speak" to the consumer in the fashion as iPod did . It's small, sleek, colorful, and unique. Whether the Zen Micro will truly challenge the iPod remains to been, but if Creative markets the hell out of it, along with some help from Microsoft...it could be a retail winner this holiday season. It's good to see competition at work. Perhaps the folks in Cupertino need to keep their "i" on Zen Micro? :lol: <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/lowres_zenmicro_all.jpg" />

[BulkHedd]

I have a 20GB Nomad Zen USB 2.0 and and 20GB iPod. I like them both, but I think Creative should try to focus their energy on making one really good player. Basically that's what Apple has done, but Creative has so many players on the shelves it's hard to keep track. I went to www.nomadworld.com and looked at all the Nomad players they offer (or have offered). There are 23 of them! Most of them are very different from the others. Some of them have removable batteries, some of them don't. Some of the flash players have a screen or an FM tuner, some don't.

I'm not saying I think choice is a bad thing, I just think that if they would work harder on the design and overall user experience, they could come up with one or two serious iPod killers. Maybe the Zen Micro is it. We'll have to wait and see.