"Dance to the iPod Shuffle? Not Likely!" Says Creative
Creative have responded to Apple's launch of the iPod Shuffle - a flash based mp3 player - with these these thoughts:
Quote:
Sound Bites from Flash Market Leader, Creative
I’m delighted Apple joined the flash party but, I’m surprised it’s taken Jobs so long. You have to hand it to him, entering the market with a statement about pioneering the ‘shuffle’ function is certainly a bold move that will grab headlines – the problem is it isn’t quite true. The ‘shuffle’ or ‘random’ function as it was previously know has been around since the inception of portable music players.
It will be interesting to see whether Apple takes its lead and learns from us or if it continues to use its million dollar marketing machine to bulldoze its way into the market. They haven’t learnt from our experience yet; we’ve been there, done that and have a story to tell…
What’s the Story?
Whether people choose to buy an iPod Shuffle comes down to whether they want control over their music or if they want manufacturers to do that for them. I wonder if the Shuffle is really easier to use than a similar product which incorporates a screen that allows people to see what they are doing and to choose from a random or set play list.
In the three years we’ve operated in the flash market we’ve learnt that people want to be in control of their music. Years ago the original MuVo was launched without a screen; it did well at the time but we had to redevelop and offer more as the market evolved. We’ve listened to our customers and have since incorporated a screen and other features (FM radio & voice recording function etc) into our low-end products. Since then, we’ve gone onto lead the flash market with 21% share. (The flash market makes up 50% of the MP3 player market.)
It’s important to understand your market and not to under-estimate the consumer. Ease of use? Yes. But we don’t need to blindfold people by taking away functionality and choice. There’s a boundary, and when you cross that it can be seen as patronising.
Our business is built on choice. We offer different products to suit different needs and allow our customers to choose between functionality and price. Our MuVo and Zen products also work with a huge range of music content providers so that our customers are not locked in to our brand alone. We’re confident this strategy of choice will win through in the end.
So Apple are now in the flash music player market. Given their success with the hard drive based iPod and its many variants, you would expect them to succeed with the iPod Shuffle too. However there is a lot of competition in the flash player market, and companies like Creative have a 'head start' on Apple. We will keep a close eye on how things pan out over the coming months.