Creative Announces 60 GB Nomad Zen, Positions It Against 30 GB iPod Despite Lack Of Mac Support

by , 11:00 AM EDT, May 6th, 2003

Just two days after Apple introduced a new line of iPods, Creative Labs announced its own high-capacity MP3 player, called the NOMAD Jukebox Zen. The new Zen model features 60 GB of storage, a reported 14 hours of battery life, and a USB 2.0 connection. Though Creative was one of the pioneers in portable MP3 players, the company has been playing second fiddle to Apple's iPod line since the iPod's initial release. Today Creative is directly comparing the new 60 GB NOMAD unit to the iPod in announcing the new unit.

The company is touting the NOMAD Zen as having "twice the storage capacity of the Apple iPod 30GB model [while] priced at $100 less." The product was announced on Wednesday, April 30th, two days after Apple announced the 30 GB iPod. Apple also announced yesterday that it had sold some 130,000 new iPods in the first week of availability.

The trade off on the higher capacity, cheaper price, and added features is a larger and heavier unit. The 60 GB NOMAD Zen weighs in at 9.5 oz., and measures 112.6 x 75.9 x 24.5 mm. By comparison, the 30 GB iPod unit from Apple weighs 6.2 ounces, and measures a slimmer 103.5 x 61.8 x 18.7mm.

Creative is able to offer 60 GB of storage because the Nomad Zen uses a 2.5" drive. While the company would not tell TMO exactly what drive mechanism is used, Creative did confirm that the use of the 2.5" drive. That class of hard drives is the same size drives used in most laptops. They are less expensive than the 1.8" mechanism Apple is using in the iPod, are bigger, can be faster, and can also be noisier. Considering the size of the drive mechanism, the NOMAD Zen's dimensions and weight are actually quite impressive, even while leaving the iPod in the clear lead in terms of portability and convenience. The 1.8" mechanisms made by Toshiba are currently limited to 30 GB.

Creative also compares the 60 GB NOMAD Zen unit's battery life to the iPod in the company's press release, saying: "the new NOMAD Jukebox Zen with 60GB boasts industry-leading audio quality at 98dB SNR, plus 14 hours of battery life, compared to the Apple iPod's eight hours."

Despite the extensive comparisons between the NOMAD Zen and Apple's iPod in Creative's press release, the NOMAD Zen is missing one feature most Mac users deem important: Support for their Mac. Though previous NOMAD Zen units offered FireWire support, neither those earlier models nor the newly announced 60 GB unit (USB 2) will support Mac users. Apple's iPod supports Mac and Windows, though Apple will not have software for the Windows version of the new product line until June.

The NOMAD Zen does not support AAC files, but it does support Windows Media Player (WMA) and WAV files, in addition to MP3s. The new iPod supports AAC , MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, and WAV.

The 60GB Nomad Jukebox Zen will be available at the end of May for US$399.99. Information will be available at Creative Labs' Nomad site, which offers only information on the 20 GB unit as of this writing. You can read the press release on the product at Creative's main site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Think about the big message in the announcement from Creative: The comparisons to the iPod emphasizes to anyone reading the press release the fact that Apple's player leads not just the MP3 player market, but the Windows MP3 player market. Creative isn't hoping to entice Mac users to buy the 60 GB Zen with this press release. No, the company is aiming that message strictly towards Windows users, and is telling them in the process that the iPod is the device to beat in their neck of the woods.

Apple, a dominant vendor in the Windows market. That's part chilling and part gratifying at the same time, but no matter how you slice it, the news is good for Apple.

What we find particularly interesting is that Creative, which was dominating the market of hard drive MP3 players when the NOMAD was first released, has begun packing in a lot of features in its effort to overtake the iPod. While the company hasn't been able to beat Apple's form factor and ease of use, there are a lot of users who want a built-in microphone, for instance, or an FM tuner. That is the nature of competition, of course, and we hope the company can keep enough pressure on Apple to force that company to add some of those same features to future versions of the iPod. There's nothing like a hungry competitor to bring faster change in the market place.

In the end, the NOMAD Zen is saddled with USB 2.0 (which gets slower throughput in real world usage than FireWire), is larger, heavier, and has an interface that has usually been found to be less easy to use than the iPod's. On the other hand, it is cheaper, and has a bigger drive. There's little doubt that the company will sell a boat load of them to the Wintel crowd, judging by those two factors alone.