Is Creative Slowly Dying?

[moshel]

creative aint creative anymore, not with their products nor with their marketing.

the september 17 fiasco for example, they call up all the press with a teaser pic and all they come out with is a sound card??? they should have atleast 4-5 products to launch if they are calling such an event.

Zen X-fi is a gimmick, moreover they put in wi-fi in the player and all we can do is chat and that too not on msn or yahoo (although not sure abt this). its not a good upgrade from the previous zen. and yes, the SD card memory thing, thats just too much.

after going through the forums, i have noticed that there are still some loopholes in the latest fw of zen, but after the fw release of 28 february 2008, no new firmware has been released.

I am from india, and i gotta tell u its very hard to find creative players in the market, even harder to find accessories. in contrast, the-one-that-cannot-be-named is available very very easily. each and every electronic store has it. there are 250+ listings on ebay india and other sites have special section only for the-one-that-cannot-be-named player.
Also i was looking for the Zen vision W player, but its not available anywhere in the indian market.

whatelse does creative sell, soundcards???? mostly audiophiles buy sound cards but those sound cards cost a bomb so maybe not every audiophile can afford it. as for the general population, they are happy with the onboard sound and el-cheapo $10 speakers. Just like most of the people are happy with the included earbuds of mp3 players.

next, Speakers: during their time, the gigaworks series were the best speakers on the market. but either its improper marketing strategy or the lack of creativity of new products that creative speakers are no longer suggested. I go on many tech forums, where there is always someone asking for suggestions for new speakers, but at none of the forums i have seen anyone suggesting creative speakers.

i guess the best way forward for creative is the MP3 player market, but they gotta give some more thought in their players rather than making minimalistic upgrades to their players.

I am not a creative fanboy but i do know that creative has a great legacy of products from the past and for that reason i want creative to stay afloat.

[CrowdAds]

[starZz]

I tihnk they are still going strong. Take a look at http://asia.creative.com/corporate/p....asp?pid=13031
they just introduced a hd version of the vado.

-8GB storage space
-capture in hd quality
-comes with hdmi & usb extension cables

all the features have been improved from the previous vado model. They are listening to what we want!

[BobbyRS]

Well, hopefully they will start to listen a little more regarding their DAP's.

[JunglePimp]

Problem with creative is that they are turning more like a bot sort of a company.
As if they assume what they sell or come up with, will be a sure-shot hit among the buyers, or as if they do not care whether it will be a hit or not.

Take the amounts of suggestions people give whenever a new firmware comes out for an example, its as if a n00b firmware was made which needs fixing at various ends.

Recently creative has come out with Zen X-fi, Mosaic and a video-audio conferencing gadget (its name is something I cannot recall), but if you see their reviews, there is a hell lot mentioned about they they need to fix up, in fact more than what they have added in their gadgets as a feature.

Creative is certainly creative, (Take the highly critisized wifi feature in Zen X-fi, the moo range of players that have recently come out, etc.), but its somewhere lacking as far as gaining an edge over other brands is concerned.

What hurts the most is that creative undoubtedly HAS THE POTENTIAL to make it to the top, but yet lags behind.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by JunglePimp

...but if you see their reviews, there is a hell lot mentioned about they they need to fix up, in fact more than what they have added in their gadgets as a feature.

Originally Posted by JunglePimp

...What hurts the most is that creative undoubtedly HAS THE POTENTIAL to make it to the top, but yet lags behind.

Yup... same old story.

[JunglePimp]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

Yup... same old story.

But you see, we still love creative

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by JunglePimp

But you see, we still love creative

Hey, I still have hope.

[no9]

Well hopefully they will announce something good at CES next month

[BobbyRS]

Yeah, we can hope, but I'll have to see to believe.

[JunglePimp]

Besides What I was wondering was, sony, cowon etc brands have regularly been coming up with, not just one, but various ranges and types of media players and that at a good frequency, while creative has'nt done so
(why I can say that is because when I browse through the latest updates column of abi, I find it hard to find creative in there).
So Either creative is planning something big, or its not planning anything.
My money would be them coming out with zen touch though
Ipod touch deserve a beating now.

[pgh1969pa]

Originally Posted by ZenChick

Regarding sale of their building in Singapore, I only see it as a means of conserving money by not spending it where it's not needed. Owning a building, with all of the maintenance that encompasses, is simply not cost-effective in our current economic times. I don't see this as a sign of Creative "dying" so much as I see it as trying to pool their resources where they're needed the most - to compete in a cutthroat market.

Selling a building to become a renter is a sign of finacial distress. How much do you really think they will save by renting? I bet the real costs will remain close to being the same but it allows them to convert the building to cash.

Companies know the cost of owning a building before they own one. They rationalize the cost and value before they embark upon the task. If one were doing well and had the finacial resources at hand, there is no need to consider such a measure. Companies often sell real estate to convert it to cash and not to reduce costs.

Chrysler sold thier relatively new facility in Auburn Hills, MI a few years ago because it would provide needed cash. They had spent a great deal of money to build the place and made a u-turn and sold it just to lease it back. They are still there and they still pay maintenance and upkeep costs. Look at where Chrysler is today.

One can not say there is an advantage or disadvantage to owning a building unless one understands the local taxation structure and prevailing economic conditions. Owning versus leasing is a complex issue. Once one chooses one of these options, a reversal is usually accompanied by a change in fortune.

Is Creative dying? I don't know. Is selling a building to become a renter a signal of finacial distress....absolutely.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by JunglePimp

Besides What I was wondering was, sony, cowon etc brands have regularly been coming up with, not just one, but various ranges and types of media players and that at a good frequency, while creative has'nt done so
(why I can say that is because when I browse through the latest updates column of abi, I find it hard to find creative in there).

Well, they have released 4 new players in the past year or so and a few re-releases with modifications.

[no9]

They do still come out with players and they have made a few moves, just not the moves that the majority of Creatives money spending fans want to see. The moves that Creative has been making of late almost makes me think they don't want to have success or that they are trying to gain a larger foothold in the lower end player market. Either that or they just like cows alot

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by no9

They do still come out with players and they have made a few moves, just not the moves that the majority of Creatives money spending fans want to see.

Well said.

Originally Posted by no9

The moves that Creative has been making of late almost makes me think they don't want to have success or that they are trying to gain a larger foothold in the lower end player market. Either that or they just like cows alot

I can't imagine them not wanting to be successful, but more so stuck in their own little world focusing attention in the wrong areas. They need to snap out of it before it's too late.

[JunglePimp]

Well if you simply give some of the latest mp3 devices a look except for the original zen, everything else has been criticized for what it was, or if not, they over did it by making minor variations to the very next product, take for example the zen x-fi (2 versions), every other review says it does not give a zen user a very good reason to move to zen x-fi.

Zen Mosaic was an epic phailure (unless you wanted a low-end mp3).

In the past as well, they have followed the trend of releasing several models with little or negotiable variations.

They have 2 types of zen stones, again not giving a previous-model-user a solid reason to upgrade, and also, wasting its marketing and advertising time into something that has already been giving what it deserved. All this eventually leads to the loss for the company.
So basically yeah, it has to take a big move now, and create something at which people look and call it "ace stuff". A move similar to Zen Vision M (metaphorically).

[no9]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

I can't imagine them not wanting to be successful, but more so stuck in their own little world focusing attention in the wrong areas. They need to snap out of it before it's too late.

No, I really can't either but with some of their moves it makes me wonder. I think they may have shifted their focus from the higher end player market so that they could make players that get bought and replaced at a faster rate. If you buy your son a stone, in a year he wants something bigger. If he gets an X-fi he keeps it for 2 or 3 years untill something comes out that can do something amazing or the battery finally dies. We see people all the time that have had their ZVM for 3 years and are starting to have problems with it now. But I think your spot on in saying that they are stuck in their own little world. If Creative doesn't start using valuable user feedback like ABI's Creative forums, and start shaking up their policies by thinking outside the box they will be making MP4 players for China in the next 3 years or be sold off to someone who will

[JunglePimp]

Originally Posted by no9

If Creative doesn't start using valuable user feedback like ABI's Creative forums, and start shaking up their policies by thinking outside the box they will be making MP4 players for China in the next 3 years or be sold off to someone who will

DAMN that's probably the most important thing that has been pointed out till now.

[BobbyRS]

If they did get bought, I'm thinking more along the lines of a company that wouldn't be in the DAP business as much as the computer business or one looking to expand a little into the business. Nvidia comes to mind here. Creative's audio expertise could help them with their integrated chipset market. Their, DAP experience could help them with their embedded technology market like Cell phones, DAP's, etc...

I remember years ago when 3dfx went under. 3dfx's video guys joined up with Nvidia and their audio guys joined Creative. That was a big boost for both Nvidia and Creative at the time. Ahhh, those were the days..... the birth of 3D graphic gaming.

Although, like we have discussed on irc, a company like Cowan could bite seeing how Creative's interface alone could be real valuable. Then again, buying up Creative would be taking on a lot of excess baggage that many companies probably wouldn't want to deal with.

[advcomp2019]

While looking on the the web, I found this: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/04/c...ectations-for/

Just think of it, Rio died and now Creative might be next.

[no9]

It would be a shame but if they didn't see this coming then they were the only ones