Creative to Gain $6.1 Million, Guess When Zii Will Be Announced
Thanks to awesome tipster Sim (unknown relation to Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo) , we’ve uncovered quite a lot about what’s forthcoming from Creative in the Zii department. Over on epiZENter, ramakandra relayed from his sources that the ZEN X-Fi2 isn’t meant as a full replacement for the X-Fi itself, but rather a way to reduce parts inventory and testing the waters for the Zii consumer model. Seemed feasible enough at the time, but now Sim has dropped the same commentary on our post about the X-Fi2:
As for the Zen touch screen x-fi2, I think some smart people have guessed correctly why it had to be released. It will make sure we will continue to generate sufficient revenue so as to cut losses and possibly break even this holiday season while we prepare for the Zii updates…
Breaking even over this quarter would amount to quite a turnabout for the Singapore company, who has posted losses for several straight quarters. Helping to feed that ambition is $6.1 million in funding from a divestment in QALA Singapore, a local ISP. I’m certainly not an expert in the world of finance, so correct me in the comment section, but this divestment is like pulling an investment from a company that you had previously funded. Creative originally invested $1.6 million, so the net gain is $4.5 million over time, a very smart investment. Qala needs not fear, however, as they were just bought by MobileOne, a major Singapore cell carrier for $10.3 million US. Clearly, this is meant to clear funding for the Zii launch.
Speaking of the Zii launch, Sim also dropped a link to the recently updated ZiiLABS.com events page, which shows when and where ZiiLABS will be demonstrating products over the next couple of months. Here they are:
IBC 2009
Amsterdam
11th – 15th September 2009Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010)
Las Vegas
7th – 10th January, 2010World Mobile Congress (Mobile World Congress, misnamed by ZiiLABS)
Barcelona, Spain
15th – 18th, February 2010
I’ll be putting my money, if I had any, on CES as the big announcement, as this is a Creative tradition to announce stuff a couple of days prior to the convention, then having a media blitz over the convention days. The company has garnered three “CES Best in Show” awards in the last decade, and they sure would enjoy a fourth. It’s almost more interesting to see the MWC announcement- perhaps a mobile carrier partner will be lined up by then?
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