Yeah I'd be scared too if I was him after hearing about the flash-based iPods.

+

I doubt a $100M marketing campaign will do much of anything. Anyone who saw Jeopardy last night also saw that a category was, "On my iPod," or something like that. The category title tile even had the Apple logo inside of it. WIRED magazine regularly runs a "What's on my iPod" feature, where it lists the top ten songs on the iPod of some famous/newsworthy person. iPod has become so culturally established that it's practically synonymous with MP3 player. How anyone expects to reverse that momentum is beyond me. (Marketing aside, no one has yet to make a player as good as the iPod, either, so I'd say Mr. Sim is about to flush $100M down the toilet.)

grossly out of his league, singaporean here!
mr. sim is obviously just wasting his money. nobody in singapore is supporting him anymore. do u know in singapore, creative is allowin a one for one exchange, trade in an old ipod for a new creative zen touch that is 'white' what a blatant imitation.
and whats with the zen micro is different colours?

Marketing is important, beacuse most people don't know there is anything other than the iPod out there. I think this may make some inroads for Creative.

I don't think Mr Sim is going to spend his $100 million marketing Creative Zen in US. That would be like flushing good money in the toilet as suggested by mrmgraphics. He will employ SunZi strategy of attacking Apple's weakest spot, China. Probably also other Asia Pacific countries where Apple's brand is not strong.

Mr Sim would have better luck spending his $100 million on developing better software, because Creative PlayCenter stinks (which is, by the way, the problem with all Creative products).

Apple's advantage isn't just the iPod hardware. The tight integration with iTunes and the iTunes store sets the standard for the entire industry. Without Apple, digital music would still be a jumble of crummy software programs written by hardware companies united only by the clunky Windows Media Player.

Just realise Mr Sim said he will spend most of his kitty in US. Look more like a defensive move (vs a low cost iPod mini) than an offensive to gain market share.

Creative is targeting a 40 percent share of the global MP3 market next year, up from 10 percent in the June quarter, Sim said. Apple held a 17 percent share in the June quarter.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041117/3/1rohq.html

What is the worldwide market share of the iPod, Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo said 17 percent ?

I am also not sure what Mr Sim is talking about. I vaguely recall that iPod's global MP3 player market share is 52% in Jun quarter rising to 65% in Sept quarter. And the global MP3 player market is about 9-10 million not 30 million for 2004.

… they probably meant 71% .

It can cost over $500,000 to buy :30 seconds on a hit TV 0show ($600k plus on AMERICAN IDOL). If you only buy TV, so if you only buy the Top 10, you can be done with your money after 200 spots. Of course, no one is just going to buy just network TV. But you can easily spend $100 million and make very little impression on the US market - all you have to do is look at MS - can anyone actually recall a MS commercial without thinking real hard?

The problem with most competitors is that they think Apple advertsing is what made the ipod ... but the real strength in Apple overall marketing is threefold:

A) Apple's products advertise the product itself - that might sound dumb but it's the ultimate mkt - best example is 10 years ago when they paid models to drink Red Bull out of a can in bars, clubs and raves - what are they drinking you're saying?

In the mp3 market, only the ipod has that cachet - nobody cares if you're drinking a Dr. Pepper or carrying some other mp3 player and NO amount of advertising will change that. That's half the battle lost.

B) Everyone else including Creative thinks it's a portable HDD device - it's NOT. Everyone else thinks it's price or hardware feature driven. We have FM! (there's a reason people stopped listening to the radio - besides the static) or more HDD space (yep, real sexy). We offer a bigger HDD! (a cargo van holds more than a POrsche - which is more desireable?) Unlike someone at least comes close to Apple' hardware-software feature set, ease of use AND interops - it's a non starter.

C) Apple scores more free PR than almost anyone (even beating out Paris Hilton who had to get naked many times over) so what seems like a huge ad budget is really 10% actual advertising and 90% FREE PR and the merry band of macheads. Only Apple has had its products feature more than once on TIME & NEWSWEEK. A typical page costs like $200k - not only does Apple get the cover, it gets more pages inside. THere are not that many consumer products on their covers - only Apple gets there regularly - you can't buy that.

Until Apple stumbles, no one will come close - especially with the 500+ acccessories - so not only does it extend the functionality of the ipod, it makes everyone's look unique (enough) so they don't feel like there are millions of other ipod users just yet.

The question is no longer how much digital music player makers will spend to advance the sales of their products. The question is now how much 3rd party product makers will spend on product development and marketing to catch a ride on a winner.

iPod accessories have become an industry of their own. Without 3rd party support Creative is spending big dollars in the contest of the also-rans.

The competition should just pack there bags. The ipod is untouchable. GOD I want one....ugg. Thats it, I'm buying one NOW!

I think the funniest thing about this article is the title: "Apple-rival Creative plans US$100 mln MP3 sales push"

Creative doesn't even come close to being a rival to Apple in any way/shape/form. The iPod is just the evolution of "the thing to have." People don't want a zen, they want an iPod.

Apple brand appeals to people that feel/want to see them selves as different or special, but most of all - creative. Same was true for I-Pod. Today, I-Pod is more of jewelry than a music player. If original apple/I-Pod consumer see him/her self as a creative/special, we could assume they’ll start to dislike I-Pod since everybody has one – just like a PC.
Finally, what matters is what’s inside.

Zedurov

Apple was smart - very smart. Their biggest move I think was porting iTunes to Windows. The closed Fairplay argument loses all its steam when the majority of the world's computers can use it. Keeping the iPod iTunes system closed to ouside music services and outside players means iPod competes against nobody. It works so well, and Apple had such a good product at launch, the competition, inexistent at the time, was instanly light years behind Apple's simple yet elegant solution.

The competition? They're battling it out amongst themselves, while Apple grows unscathed on the other side of the fence. Virgin gets out, Yahoo gets in. Creative might grow, but it will be the Dell DJ and the iRiver that suffer, not the iPod.

Sure, Apple will likely come down incrementally from the lofty status they now hold, but they will remain a dominant player in what's becoming a growing market. The whole widget just works.

So far, iPod captures only 65% of the global music player market. iPod shuffle will likely to add about 15%. So, Apple still has to work hard for the other 20%. Apple's best strategy is to partner with other vendors for this other 20%.

Quote

... Virgin Electronics is closing it doors less than a year after refocusing on digital music devices ...