Briefly: Creative to License Technology to Acer for Gaming PCs
Acer has a gaming PC? Who knew? In any case, Creative has licensed the THX TruStudio and EAX Advanced HD 5.0 technologies to the up-and-coming vendor for an unknown sum. In any case, it’s a bit of money for the company, and Acer isn’t really their competition, so there’s no real bad side to this that I can see. Keep reading for the full press release and link. (more…)
Creative, ZiiLABS to Host First Zii Summit In First Week of December
When I read the Singapore Business-Times article over on epiZENter yesterday, there was a curious mention of demonstrations at a ‘Shenzen conference’. Not being particularly great with China’s second busiest port city, I thought it was just an industry conference. However, that has changed with the press release from ZiiLABS today, which announced a ‘Zii Summit’ for December 1-2 in Shenzen. According to the press release, Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo, in addition to the head of ZiiLABS, Hock Leow, will be giving keynote addresses on the first day in addition to a press conference. More importantly, however, is the seminar that will be held over the two days to showcase the ‘technology, platforms, products, services, and content’ of the Zii ecosystem. Simultaneously, however, is the real point of the summit- to showcase the full range of Zii-powered devices. The wording in the press release, which is copied below, is overwhelmingly positive as all press releases are, mentions multiple Zii-powered products. The door has been locked shut on any leaks thus far to upcoming devices, but it seems that this will open the floodgates. I’m certainly excited. (more…)
Creative Leaving Recession?
Creative’s FY2010 Q1 results were made official just a short while ago. Pretty much good news all around except in one major category: net sales, which were down nearly 50% over Q1 2009. This might typically be cause for alarm, but with a worldwide recession and no real products introduced during the quarter, it’s not entirely unexpected. The bigger news, however, is the net loss: down to $1 million US. Last year at this time, the company lost $40.8 million. Here’s the rest: (more…)
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?
Creative’s Back, Stock Hits Eleven Month High
Wow! After the announcement of the THX partnership and news about the ZiiEGG, many in the Creative community (myself included) felt like the company had pulled a 180° and was now sailing into a brighter, more positive future. Apparently, the markets feel the same way- Creative stock is up massively. The price opened at $5.95 per share on Tuesday- a 30% uptake in one day. Unheard of. As of this post, it’s up another $1.10 today- another 20% increase by my math. These are levels that the company hasn’t seen quite some time- eleven months according TODAYonline. It seems that the press is taking note as well: Reuters, TODAYonline, and ChannelNewsAsia all have stories featuring Creative. TODAYonline even opened with the following line: “Is entrepreneur Sim Wong Hoo crafting a new strategy for his company?” Surely this can be only good things for a company that has seen only negative momentum on the stocks- let’s hope the market share for DAPs follows shortly. C’mon Creative!
Singapore Exchange (change company to Creative Technology Ltd)
MyCreativeFansite via epiZENter
TODAYonline- Strategic Shift at Creative Tech?
Reuters- Singapore Hot Stocks
inPerson Video Conferencing System Gets OEM Treatment, Wireless
After this week’s staggering news regarding the new touchscreen player comes the business as usual news from Creative. The inPerson conferencing system, announced quite a while back, has finally gained some real traction in the OEM market. While we don’t have sales figures or stats, the inPerson really hasn’t made any news at all, and probably is considered a bust financially. Finally, someone may turn that around. Today, Creative and Walsh Wireless have announced that they have teamed up to package the inPerson system with Sprint wireless, thus resulting in truly wireless high quality video conferencing. Originally with wifi for the office building, the new system will work anywhere that there is a Sprint data connection, which means only really large US cities. Not a huge announcement from the company, but a bit of positive news from a product that we all thought was dead in the water is perhaps a good sign of things to come. Intriguing moreso, perhaps, because Sprint is a main rival of AT&T (exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the US), and a previously unknown OEM coming out of the woodwork for this partnership. A precursor to a Zii/Plaszma partnership with Sprint? Who knows. We can keep hoping.
Read the official PR release after the jump.
Creative US Store Now Powered By Amazon
The Creative US site has gotten the facelift that the rest of the region got a few weeks ago. In addition to the update on the inside, the store has gotten its biggest update since the site went live way back in the twentieth century. The interface is now clean and easy to navigate, and the new URL scheme is a bit less random. It’s much easier to pick out of the lineup if you’re not able to search through the history. After much frustration, they also added a prominent search option. It’s estimated it will save billions of hours of work instead of navigating through every menu as with the old system. More importantly, however, is the new WebStore system that the company uses. While it’s still the same Creative inventory and shipping (I believe), the entire user interface is a modified version of Amazon’s fantastic system. It even uses Amazon’s system for payment, which, while still bad for PayPal and Google Checkout lovers, is better than the previous system of manual entering. Overall, it’s a much needed coat of paint on the outside and a extremely powerful system on the inside. WebStore will hopefully improve the buying process in addition to ease of RMA and shipment tracking. With the Zii looming overhead, Creative seems to have begun a turn for the better- in all departments.
1999, via Archive.org
July 2009 Update
Fancy, breadcrumb style page with Amazon theme and branding. Below are actual Amazon ratings imported from their website.
Inside the checkout process, the Amazon branding gets much more visible.
Visit the new Creative US store at the new url: us.store.creative.com.
BREAKING: Apple to Buy Creative for $1.6 Billion
In a stunning turn of events, it is time to say goodbye to Creative Technology. The company, founded in 1981, has been purchased by Cupertino-based Apple Inc. Creative had been Apple’s foremost rival in the digital audio market, and beat them to the market with their NOMAD player. Creative also was the dominant force in third party sound cards, with the X-Fi line being recognized as the top of the line in sound cards. Apple acting CEO Timothy Cook announced that the entirety of Creative will be disbanded, and will be merged into existing Apple development markets. For more information, you can visit an excellent source for everything that is ever going to happen with Apple and Creative at Apple’s PR site here. As I learn more of this tragic event, I’ll post here.
As if… it’s too easy to do on a day like this!
Fooled Ya! Creative Re-Opening Outlet Store
Despite being closed and empty for a while, the Mariana Square (Singapore) Creative outlet store will soon return to the mall. Creative closed it because of climbing rent, but according to Nothing But Creative, the mall substantially reduced the rate at which Creative was leasing the space, prompting the return to the mall. Nothing But Creative says that the store should re-open in the next few weeks. Creative’s retail outlets only exist in Singapore, but the rest of the world can access the great savings (a $38 ZEN on Creative US!) on their regional Creative page.
Goodbye to the ZEN UI?
Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead: Creative Singapore is hiring. Despite the global economic crisis and companies cutting jobs right and left, Creative Singapore is hiring some very high end jobs, perhaps ramping up for the launch of their new player. They are hiring in an area that got my attention, though: a new Senior Designer.
The senior designer(s) that they are hiring will be in charge of “creating exciting User Interface (UI) designs for Personal Digital Entertainment devices”. The way they worded it, specifically the whole “creating” part, makes it seem (more…)
