RSSCreative Unveils iPod Video Lookalike
By Ed Oswald | Published December 8, 2005, 1:05 PM
Aiming to steal some of the thunder from the video iPod, Creative on Thursday introduced the Zen Vision:M, a device that looks quite a bit like its popular rival. The player sports a 30GB hard drive, 2.5"-inch screen, and will be available in five colors.
The Singapore-based Creative continues to struggle against Apple, even having trouble competing against other Windows-based player manufacturers such as iRiver. According to recent surveys, the company's players regularly come behind competitors Apple, Sony and iRiver in just about every country.
Yet Sim Wong Hoo, Creative's chairman, has continually taken an aggressive stance against Apple in the press, claiming his company's players are some of the best in the industry for design, choice of format and features.
Hoo has also reportedly told the BBC that he plans to aggressively pursue a patent that the company owns regarding music player navigation. Although Hoo did not single out Apple, the company has already disputed Creative's rights to the patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
According to Hoo, Creative is already in discussions with some manufacturers regarding licensing of the patent, but he declined to reveal the status of those talks.
However, Creative could be equally setting itself up for legal trouble with the Zen Vision:M, which when put next to the fifth-generation iPod offers a nearly identical user interface with a very similar form factor. Apple has been notorious in the past for protecting the designs of its hardware.
Hoo also took a shot at the iPod in a statement introducing the new player. "We offer people the freedom to choose their video in a variety of different formats, and to get subscription music or download tracks from a number of different sites to their player," he chided.
The Zen Vision:M will also include an FM player with recording, built-in microphone, selectable themes, an organizer, and a color screen that Creative claims is four times better with color than the iPod video.
The player will retail for $329.99 USD when it goes on sale later this month from the Creative Web site, $30 more expensive than the 30GB iPod with video.
Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research, said that if Creative was attempting to emulate the design cues of the iPod with the Zen Vision:M, he wasn't fooled.
"The width and length of the Zen Vision:M are same as the newer iPod, but the device is thicker than even the 60GB iPod," Wilcox said. "I wouldn't call the media player as slick as iPod."
Still, Wilcox says Creative may be able to draw in customers with its support for Windows-based video and audio formats, and open formats such as Xvid. "The device's size and features would probably appeal most to people looking for untethered content. Caveat: the device Website doesn't carry Microsoft's PlaysForSure logo, which means less assurance of compatibility with all WMA DRM subscription content."
Add a 1 Megapixel Camera, usb for flash-memory, and oh ... a microphone jack and I'm starting to get interested =)
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|Creative have always been better than ipod, creative mp3's just look so much more sleek, neater and stylish
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|Looks good, but not as good looking as the ipod (ok for those people who don't care about style .... :P like Bill Gates hehehehe)
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|This has absolutly nothing to do with Microsoft or Bill Gates Moron!
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|I like it. Does it work?
This could be a good thing for consumers. Let's start a price war!
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|Except it's more expensive than the iPod :) So I don't think we're going to see Apple lowering its prices.
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|$300 iaudio is still my portable player of choice
30 gig, 30 hours battery, MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, scheduled radio recording, mic/line-in recording, alarm, audio details, equalizer, download pictures from your digital camera, video, great color screen as well.
works on windows, mac, linux, no software required, can copy music to and from the device, out of the box.
http://www.newegg.com/Pr...sp?Item=N82E16855603827
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|$300 for audio only? Spend $30 more and get the new Creative video player.
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|it's not audio only
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|If creative want to win, they must offered the same things with less price, instead of higher price.
it will be difficult to make people buy if the price is higher but it is a alternative from market leader
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|Agreed. What a very bad marketing move. No wonder they are behind.
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|GO CREATIVE! **** IPod and their expensive s***, way to jump past the old school audio and go straight to audio/video!
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|Hmmm, F*** IPod and their expensive s***, even though this player is more expensive....????
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|If you can't beat 'em. copy 'em!
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|Creative had portable video players long before Apple. It's just that this one is supposed to be an alternative specifically for the Video iPod.
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|I think this is great I like the competion, great job creative.
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|oops... replied to the wrong comment.
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|ive always been a Creative fan but this is kind of low. I dont like ipods very much and this thing should be able to sell better because of its features not its appearence. I wish consumers wouldnt always look at whats more popular and whats prettier.
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|It's not about that. It's about the click-wheel baby! Until another player has that (and I think it's patented) then I'll be sticking with the iPod.
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|"claiming his company's players are some of the best in the industry for design, choice of format and features."
Yeah f'ing right. He rips off the iPod design and then claims he is the best in the industry for design.
Nice choice of features though.
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|If they realy wanted to compete they should just slap a mini OS on it and turn it into a pda just make it a bit more powerfull and keep the price the same and make the money off extras like a camera or keyboard things like that it's not like they don't already have the hard drive of a small computer anyways:)
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|Xvid ftw!
Now you can watch spaceballs on it will all your friends! :D
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|It definitely looks like an iPod ripoff. However, Creative has taken the fine design language of the iPod and added a much better feature set, including radio, mic, and the ability to play a lot more video formats.
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|no need for this thingy atleast for me as compared to an ipod
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|Well, it's unquestionably more functional than the iPod, taking everything the iPod has and adding Outlook Syncing, FM radio and recording, and a microphone.
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|Hmm, a bit "UnCreative" IMO.
They could have at least not make it look like an iPod copy.
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|Lawsuit! Apple will sue over look alike.. Mark my words, there will be an injunction citing "Apple's repution could be impaired by devices that will "confuse and mislead" people."
Apple will pursue this.. I'd say within the next 2 weeks, we will see something from Apple claiming this is a knock off, and appears to be too much like thier product..
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|they should. almost everything except their dail looks identical to the ipod. even the screen shot of the photos on it looks identical to the one apple sported when it was released.
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|coool - this could get interesting :-)
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|Hmm.. they aren't that "creative" are they..
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|If I'm thinking of the right company, then they're the ones that originally designed all the modern day interfaces you see everywhere.
Might not be them though...but if it is, they have a patent on tons.
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|I smell lawsuit
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|This is rediculous i say boycout creative! This is low and sleazy! BOO FOR CREATIVE!
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|Who cares if creative made a "look-alike". In case you haven't seen it Apple did it first.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/...ws/magazine/4265374.stm
There are only so many ways of putting on a screen and placing buttons. The ipods layout is good but I personally think Creatives layout is better. I will be picking up Creatives version for the simple fact it's vastly more functional and all I have to say is that it's about damn time.
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|Wow that is actually funny, even the menu looks the same. I don't like the little slider in te middle though that looks kind of odd. Theres probally a good chance ol Steve might be talking to there 30 lawyers on how many times they can sue Creative.
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|well Creative can sue Apple for using the "Nano" brand name...
This patent thing is heading in the same direction as political correctness in the U.S.
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|True however Apple seems to be getting good at these days.
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|You have that backwards, Creative owns the patent see this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4510044.stm
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