Jason Dunn
11-01-2007, 12:46 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/10/creative-falls-further-behind-apple.html' target='_blank'>http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/10/creative-falls-further-behind-apple.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Creative Technology, the Singapore-based company that's a distant third behind Apple (AAPL) in the MP3 player market, full further behind last quarter. The company, which delisted from the Nasdaq earlier this year, posted Q1 sales of $185 million. That's down 24% y/y, while Apple saw iPod revenues increase 4%, and unit sales increase 17% in its last quarter. About the best you can for Creative is that it still has a larger market share (something in the single digits, according to NPD data) than Microsoft's Zune."</i><br /><br />That's some bad news for Creative - they've obviously struggling, being pounded by Apple on one side and Microsoft and Sandisk on the other. It's too bad, because I really do like Creative's products - my Zen Vision:M is still a great player in many ways. I think one problem Creative has always had is that they simply have <a href="http://www.creative.com/products/welcome.asp?category=213&bypass=1">too many products in their lineup</a> - it's not easy to digest or understand which one you want to buy. Differentiation is of course also the big problem - people need to look at their products and understand why it's better than other players. <br /><br />Take the Zen Stone for instance: I bought one for use in an infrared sauna we bought this year, and not only was it a hassle that it didn't come with a built-in clip (come on, it's a no-brainer to copy Apple's Shuffle) it also couldn't take the heat in the sauna - yet the old Dell Ditty could. So now the Zen Stone sits here doing nothing. <br /><br />If Creative released a version of the Zen with a four inch screen and 16 GB of memory, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat - I'm still questing for the perfect portable media player. I'll give Creative the nod for having a small 16 GB Flash player though - that's something that neither Apple nor Microsoft released, so good job Creative!