RSSCreative Gives Flash MP3 Another Toss with Zen Stone
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 3, 2007, 6:43 PM
With Apple's iPod becoming nearly ubiquitous, a serious #2 competitor in the same market has to strike out and make bold moves if it is to distinguish itself. That's what Creative Technology (the former Creative Labs) has been trying to do with its Zen series of MP3 players - look for the niches where buyers who would reject the iPod would flee, and then attack those niches with stylish designs and gusto.
Creative's already done this on the high side of the market with the Zen Vision:W, an attractive portable media player that makes a case for itself with a larger screen and more flexible support for video standards like DivX and XviD.
Now on the other side of the market, Creative is introducing a low-end flash-based player to go up against the iPod Shuffle, whose recent restyling as an unusual, money-clip-like device only added to its popularity. To combat that appeal, Creative's new Zen Stone omits the screen, and assumes the form factor of a polished cobblestone.
The Zen Stone is not a technically capable or replete device by any means, with 1 GB of flash memory yielding the capability to store about 250 songs at the 128 kbps bit rate (iTunes recently announced a move toward 256 kbps). On the other hand, the Stone tries to be a more convenient, usable device by means of compatibility with a wristband or a keychain, letting it assume less "gadget space" in users' everyday lives.
The price point will also turn heads as well, with a suggested US price of $69 when it hits the streets here in the middle of this month. Accessories will cost extra, of course, likely including translucent "skin" packages like you see for some cell phones; and an optional sound system dock will sell for $138.
This morning's statement from Creative chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo tries in a less-than-transparent manner to implant the idea of bulk sales, relatively speaking, in the customer's mind: "Whether it is your only player or a second player to take with you anywhere, the low price lets you think of MP3 players in a whole new way. You can loan it to a friend just like you would a CD or a mix tape and not have to worry about it, but you'll like it so much that you'll want another so you always have one with you."
The unit will run on two AAA batteries, though the company suggests lithium-ion rechargeables, for an estimated continuous lifetime of about 10 hours.
Let's get the facts straight!!
The Zen Stone is actually priced at $39.99!! NOT $69.99.
At $39.99..I'm thinking it's a steal, and you really are going to want more than one.
http://us.creative.com/p...y=214&product=16424
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|It's a decent price, but I'm not sure I'd call it a "steal." BestBuy has the 1G Sansa on sale for $34.99 this week, and it has a screen.
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|It comes in different colours, not just red.
Of course.
Everybody knew that. ;|
The black one looks ok.
The white one looks like my dryer, which is not
ok. No reminders thank you very much.
The blue one looks blue.
The yellow one reminds me of high visibility
wear such as a blaze orange hunting vest. (this
is a good thing.)
but still:
ignoring s+h, etc. the competition seems to be
30 US bucks for a one gig flash drive (that I
_could use as a backup device for tiny files)
plus an FM radio & voice record that runs on
_one_ AAA battery
Since the Zen thing includes a USB cable I can
assume that it can be used as a flash drive.
IME, Creative Labs does good products, but charges
to much for them and does worse than Microsoft at
documentation or help files.-----I would not
be surprised if Creative forgot to mention
an extra half gig that is only available for
voice record.
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|Are Creative masochists?
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|To pricey, to unpleasantly* ugly, just not a
competetive product.
70 bucks, no FM radio, 2 AAA batteries--
Last weeks' Big Lots advert has, for 30 bucks,
something that looks just like my $30 after
rebate Ultra Hydra.
A quick search from where I got mine (tiger-
direct.com) gives a $20 after rebate Centon
and numerous other $30 one gig players w/
radio and voice recording.
*helgramite ugly, bull dog ugly? No prob.
Bloody blob of chewing gum? Ick.
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|Sorry tiny players, the iRiver S10 (or the upcoming watchband version) is the best in class. It's smaller AND has a screen.
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|...and costs $150.
Not really a comparison there, bud.
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|Hey Creative get to work on my drivers that still arent 100% compatible with Vista! ;)
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|Don't hold your breath. Their support forums are littered with complaints and practically zero response dating back to Beta 1.
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|until my xfi platinum is fully functional with vista I will not migrate. It seems even when I do, xp will be part of dual boot just in case. The way things are going, the xfi card will become obsolete before the drivers for it are fully developed or I will get home brew drivers like when I had an aureal card.
i am sure that theres a good car analogy for this... he he
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|:p
I found driver for my Live! and Audigy.
I'm thinking the same *trick* may work for the xfi.
Put in the install CD that came with the card, open the root CD folder and right-click the setup/install program. Change it to XP SP2 compatibility and run it.
There might be a few warnings.
For the Live! I ended up having to disable hardware acceleration in most games (as Vista does not support Audio acceleration), but it seems to operate decently.
For the Audigy, it actually kicks. The sound, bass, everything is just *better*. It could be just me, but I doubt it.
Give it a shot if you have Vista. Otherwise, just sit tight.
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|Heh. You don't even have to worry about that for much longer.
Take a look:
Audigy owners to get DSP back
http://www.theinquirer.n...ault.aspx?article=39403
I'm glad to see this since I paid a lot for my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
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|But they're going to make us pay for it?
Must....kill.....
*shudders*
Sorry, just about lost it there.
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|Yeah... for the temporary fix, but hopefully the final "Vista-native" fix mentioned in the last sentence will just be a free driver upgrade. "Hopefully."
However, we're expecting to see a Vista-native solution from Creative before the year is out, so stay, hilariously, tuned.
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|They've already lost any future income from my purchases, and from the look of their forums, *many* others. Their handling of the driver issue has been absolutely atrocious.
These guys are supposed to be at the forefront of PC audio.
They mishandled this so badly they have lost what was at one point, a lifelong customer.
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|Agreed. I don't have Vista, so this hasn't affected me, but I can see why others would be outraged.
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|but do we really have an alternative?? asus? we'll see
http://www.theinquirer.n...ault.aspx?article=38230
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|You will want to buy another to always have one with you? Well for one thing it is ugly. Second thing is why would I buy this when I can have a shuffle with a clip? Second why would creative when they are losing their s*** in this market continue to grab at straws while taking a mouth full of water?
Creative needs to pull out of this market. With the zune, sandisk and samsung and however many others continue to fight for left overs, creative is the only one bleeding out of the juggular. They need a new market with innovative products, not try to continue to compete in an impossible market. Creative is 3rd in the market from what I seen. All of them do the same thing. Play portable music. Creative doesn't have a prayer with this device and producing it, marketing it and everything else will cost more then they will make from it.
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|Creative (pardon the pun) hasn't been terribly creative as of late but I do think there will be a market for this device. The price point is lower than the iPod Shuffle and the Sandisk express. It is simple and will definitely attract interest from price sensitive customers. The margins probably aren't very high at that price but I am sure they will make money.
The bigger problem I see with Creative is that they have too many players in their line. They haven't been able to market themselves very well and Sandisk is really killing them on low cost players because most retailers would prefer selling a product that they can acquire for 30-40% below MSRP instead of 15-30%.
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|i disagree, their zen touch, for $225 for the 40 gig model, and the vision m are very good and work better than the ipods of similar features at more cost. also the zen features drag and drop and wmp support. as well as a few different types of drm, not that anyone here likes that.
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|This report is wrong. The ZEN Stone is out now and being sold on Creative's website. Black only for the time being.
It is $39.99, not $69.
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|but isnt that only for the 512mb version?
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|Nope, they're all 1GB. It's also a UMD, so you can drag-drop contents.
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