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View Full Version : Samsung Admits Missing the Cluetrain


Jason Dunn
06-24-2005, 08:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121560,tk,dn062305X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121560,tk,dn062305X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"After missing out on the recent strong growth of the MP3 player market, Samsung Electronics is getting serious about competing, a senior executive says. The company has decided to focus some effort on carving out a place for itself in the market and is hoping to more than triple player shipments this year, says David Steel, vice president of Samsung's digital media business. He spoke during a briefing with reporters at the company's headquarters here, south of Seoul. Samsung was in the MP3 player market several years ago but the company decided there wasn't much of a future in a product category that was largely driven by illegal downloads, says Steel."</i><br /><br />An interesting admission from Samsung - what day is this, international "come clean" day? We have Samsung admitting that they completely missed the onrushing tidal wave of consumer digital audio, and IRiver admitting that UI is an important part of every player. What's next, Apple admitting that if they turned on WMA playback they'd sell even more devices? :roll:

Jason Eaton
06-24-2005, 08:28 PM
Nah, that won't happen till S.J. can say something about how great WMA is and how Apple will reinvent it. :D

yada88
06-26-2005, 07:28 AM
Hey Jason,
I think you're a bit off if you think adding wma support would increase sales more than 1-2% on the ipod. The ipod is a pop icon. I can't think of anyone who every said "hey, yea, wma. Awesome." and decided against the ipod. Honestly, the creative isn't terrible, but the real reason any other ipods sell is that there are parents who go into best buy not knowing what to buy. At this point the specs on ipods don't matter. I know people who are on their third ipod. And more than anything else, the ipod isn't meant to drive system purchases, and wma support would get people off itunes, which gets them away from "wow. apple's products are so easy. i don't know $h#%, I guess i'll buy an apple system based on my experience with one program and an audio playe.r" Sorry, had to go on a rant. bad night.
:bad-words:
Jeff

PS. Couldn't find the soap box emoticon

Jason Dunn
06-26-2005, 05:09 PM
I think you're a bit off if you think adding wma support would increase sales more than 1-2% on the ipod. The ipod is a pop icon.

I agree with you actually - the % of people that are holding off buying an iPod because they have all their music in WMA format is pretty low, 1-2% of the total audio player marketshare is probably accurate. Although I think if iTunes played WMA files that would have a bigger impact - I liked iTunes quite a bit other than the lack of WMA support.