IRiver Realizes User-Interface is Important

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121556,tk,dn062205X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121556,tk,dn062205X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"As more and more MP3 player makers improve their devices' external design, the user interface is becoming an important differentiating factor, the chief executive officer of one of the world's biggest MP3 player makers said Wednesday. Joon Yang, CEO of South Korea's Reigncom, which produces players under the IRiver brand name, said that the exterior design of his company's devices used to make them stand out from the competition. But competitors have caught up on exterior design, pushing IRiver to focus on something else."</i><br /><br />Better late then never I suppose. I've only used a couple of IRiver devices, but the ones I've used had the worst user interfaces I've ever seen, so much so that when I think of bad UI on MP3 players, IRiver is the first company that comes to mind.

[jeffd]

I loved their interface on their cdmp3 players (which actually carried over to most of their non hd based players).

That said... currently my mp3 player is my pocket pc. My iriver 250 broke and since you cant buy them any more, I am reluctant to plop many hundreads of dollers on a good HD player. Also using winamp 2.x skins, no player can hold a candle to the high color snazzy looking ui on my ppc. ;)
I'm still waiting for portable dvd based mp3 players.

[socrates63]

Good to hear that iRiver will finally do something about the user interface. It was precisely for this reason, and only this reason, why I went with the iPod instead of iRiver. Generally, iRiver players offer a ton of features but usability isn't the best.