With Apple a No-Show, Creative Zen the MP3 Player Favorite
TMO at CES - With Apple a No-Show, Creative Zen the MP3 Player Favorite
by , 12:50 PM EST, January 7th, 2005
LAS VEGAS, NV -- With Apple Computer deciding not to exhibit at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, Creative Technology and its Zen portable media device is getting big crowds and positive response from show attendees.
"It's not an iPod, but it's a viable alternative that has incorporated many of the features, colors and price of the Apple product," said Mary Phraties, a buyer with a small chain of electronics stores in Nebraska. "This will sell at our stores, and we'll offer it as a formidable alternative to the iPod, which we sell."
Much of the reaction among attendees flocking to the Creative booth was the same.
"This is not an iPod-killer, but I think it's the closest thing to it," said retail buyer Jason Snell. "The key to selling this over an iPod is to talk about performance and its price (at US$249.99)."
Creative on Thursday announced plans to release three new models of the Zen, including a 1 gigabyte flash-memory device. The other new models being readied will offer 4GB and 6GB of storage, the company said. The 1GB model will be available some time in the first quarter for $199.99. The 4GB and the 6GB models will be available later this month, for $229.99 and $299.99, respectively. A 5GB version of the Zen Micro is already available and was the primary device CES attendees touched and played with (see photo below).
One CES attendee playing with the 5GB Creative Zen digital media player.
Many others looking at the Creative Zen felt its benefits lie in its ability to access a wider range of online music choices.
"Apple's decision to not share its digital rights management (DRM) technology and not opening up to consumers buying music from other places will end up hurting Apple. I'm confident of that," said a retailer buyer from a nationwide chain, who asked not to be identified. "We sell the iPod in our stores, but we're finding more customers talking about choice when they buy an MP3 player. They can't get as much choice in an iPod, and they're starting the realize that."
Despite Apple's choice not license it's FairPlay DRM, the company still holds almost a 90% market share among hard disk-based digital media devices, according to the NPD Group. In its last report on retail figures for November, Creative held a less than 4% share on the same space. As for flash-based players, Creative ranks as number three among makers, with a 15% market share.
Choice of colors was also a big sales point for retailers seeing the Zen for the first time at CES.
"We know how popular the iPod mini in its many colors (five) was during the Christmas buying season last month," said Lisa Murphy, a buyer with Fry's Electronics. "Creative will find offering color choices (ten) will be successful for them as well, I think."
Creative's presence and new product announcements at CES are a continuing sign that the company has Apple in its sights and is remaining competitive in the digital media device market. In November, Creative said it would spend $100 million in 2005 to market its portable media devices in a worldwide campaign to grab market share from Apple Computer and its popular iPod player.
Observer Comments
Excerpt from a Creative marketing meeting,
"The iPod has 5 colors. To beat them all we have to do is make 10 colors. Its so simple why didn't anyone else think of this."
On a side note isn't the silver mini the most popular by far? It doedsn't seem to be color that is selling the iPod what could it be what could it be?
Even though Creative is a poor second with less than 4% marketshare in the hdd player space, it is putting a lot of effort in competing with iPod. If in the this quarter, Creative manages to notch up more than 4% marketshare, Apple has to re-evaluate whether it is right not to license FairPlay.
From the Zen Micro product specs page: 3 formats
Audio Support:
MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3), Windows Mediaâ„¢ Audio (WMA) and WAV
(http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=10795&nav=2)
From the iPod mini specs page: 7 formats
Audio support:
AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, Audible
(http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/specs.html)
Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:42 pm Subject: Retail buyers on "choice"
"We sell the iPod in our stores, but we're finding more customers talking about choice when they buy an MP3 player." -- anonymous retail buyer
Well, that's a pretty dopey comment. Any MP3 player will play MP3s. The iPod plays just as many MP3s as any other player. None of the major online music stores are even selling MP3s, instead going with some DRM-laden proprietary format.
(I know... "MP3 player" and "digital music player" mean the same thing to a layperson, but still, a buyer should know better.)
Creative needs not get much marketshare initially. So long they can get more than 4%, they can brag about it. From their pricing strategy and product features, you can tell Creative is not going for price war or adopting the feature-rich me-too approach. They are pricing their products similar to Apple's.
Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:17 pm Subject: Re: The added price.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
The true success behind the iPod is the iTunes Music Store. The only "portable mp3 player" that could play songs from the iTunes Music Store is the iPod.
Why else would people still spend $245 for 4 GB iPod mini rather than a ($245) 20 GB Zen Touch?
I have a Gen 3 iPod (10gb), my wife has an iPod mini. Mine's about half filled, hers about 2/3rds filled. Not a single song on either has come from iTMS.
I bought mine (Apple refurb, BTW) because it works better and I don't need 20gb of space. I bought my wife her iPod mini because it's the most intuitive MP3 player out there and she loves the light weight and, yes, the looks.
Sun Oct 09, 2005 6:59 am Subject: whats the most popular colours for the creative zen micro?
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