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Creative wins MP3 player patent

vansmack
Joined: October 04, 2001 at 05:01 AM UTC
Posts: 19725
Creative wins MP3 player patent August 30, 2005 at 05:21 PM UTC #
Creative wins MP3 player patent

One of Apple's main rivals, Creative Technology, has been awarded a patent for the interface used on many digital music players.

Creative said the patent applied to its players, as well as some competing products such as the Apple's iPod and iPod mini.

The patent covers how files on a music player are organised.

Creative was one of the first companies to produce MP3 players but has lost out to Apple which dominates the market.

The Creative announcement is the latest salvo in its self-declared war against Apple.

In November, Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo said he aimed to out market his competitors, saying the MP3 war had started.

Apple's iPod is estimated to account for 80% of sales of digital music players which use hard drives to store music.

Navigate music

Creative said it had applied for the patent, dubbed the Zen Patent, on 5 January 2001 and was awarded it on 9 August.

It applies to the way music tracks are organised and navigated on a player through a hierarchy using three or more successive screens.
For example, this would be a sequence of screens that could display artists, then albums and then tracks.

"The first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen Patent was our Nomad Jukebox MP3 player," said Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo.

"The Apple iPod was only announced in October 2001, 13 months after we had been shipping the Nomad Jukebox based upon the user interface covered by our Zen Patent."

In its press release, Creative said Apple had filed for a patent for a user interface in a multimedia player in late 2002, but its application had been recently rejected.

Creative is looking to take a slice out of Apple with its new products. It recently introduced a new version of its Zen model which has a colour screen and can play video.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4198360.stm
ggw
Joined: December 16, 2001 at 06:01 AM UTC
Posts: 14237
Re: Creative wins MP3 player patent August 30, 2005 at 05:30 PM UTC #
iPod rival D&M pulls plug on Rio

By Scott Morrison in San Francisco

Published: August 28 2005 18:45 | Last updated: August 28 2005 18:45

The iPodâ??s dominance in the portable digital music player market has some of Apple Computerâ??s key competitors singing the blues.

In the latest sign that the iPod is overpowering rivals, Japanese electronics maker D&M Holdings said last Friday it would close the portable digital music player division behind the Rio brand.

D&M, which also owns the Denon and Marantz home audio equipment brands, said its loss-making Rio players have become â??mass marketâ? products that donâ??t fit with its strategy. D&M said it was no longer willing to invest in the intensely competitive portable digital audio player market.

The company said it would stop manufacturing Rio products at the end of September. They include the Rio Karma and Rio Carbon, hard-drive based units that compete directly with the iPod and iPod Mini.

The Rio Carbonâ??s cool design, ease-of-use and cheaper price was well received by analysts, some of whom quietly suggested it could become an â??iPod killerâ?. But none of Rioâ??s digital music products were able to gain significant traction in the market.

iPod sales have continued to surpass even the most optimistic expectations on Wall Street, as consumers flock to Apple Stores to snap up iPods, iPod Minis and iPod Shuffles. Apple, which has shipped almost 22m units since introducing the iPod in 2001, controls about 75 per cent of the US market.

Rioâ??s exit was also seen as a blow to Microsoft, RealNetworks, Napster and other Apple rivals that operate internet music services based on Microsoft standards. These music services have looked to groups such as D&M, Creative Technology and Samsung to provide music players that operate on Microsoft standards.

consumers have been confused by various standards and brands â?? and the perception that not all of them are compatible with each other. On the other hand, Appleâ??s iPod and the iTunes online music store operate on closed standards based on the companyâ??s own technology. â??Itâ??s certainly a loss [for the Microsoft camp],â? said Michael McGuire, analyst at Gartner. â??When one of the early leaders in the space exits the market it definitely has to be a concern.â?

Creative Technology, which makes Nomad and Zen digital music players, earlier this month said the iPodâ??s dominance and the marketâ??s thin profit margins hurt its quarterly results. But the Singapore company said it would still launch two new MP3 players with photo and video capabilities.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/495a5ccc-17e0-11da-a14b-00000e2511c8.html
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