Sep
11
Briefly: What the Nano move means & how do the rivals react
- Steve Jobs’s Tiny but Sure Bet (commenting on the drop-Mini-launch-Nano move; notes the importance of the steep discount provided by Samsung for its flash chips; also, the author of the article is dead-wrong when he says that the Nano “could potentially reduce Apple’s warranty and support costs, since it uses solid-state flash memory to store songs, rather than more fragile, crash-prone hard drives”: true, hard drives are more sensitive to movement, but flash chips often die unexpectedly with no reason at all, just ask the millions of flash-based MP3 players out there) [via]
- Apple pipped to Nano name by arch-rival (Creative had its “Zen Nano” come bfore Apple’s latest same-name offering; (1) nano is a unit of measurement; (2) unlike the ‘Zen patent’ I’d be highly suprised if Apple’s legal department didn’t research this extensively before moving on with the new name, but the article says “Creative could argue Apple is attempting to trade on the back of an established product”; (3) Creative should finally move on along and quit it with trying to make up for its lost profits by sueing Apple—also, read: “Does iPod nano Infringe on Creative’s Zen Nano Plus?” [via]) [via]
- Domestic MP3 Firms Sulk at Apple’s New Player (Korean MP3 player makers pissed at Samsung for providing those Nano flash memory chips at such a steep discount -
said to be around 40-50%- with Samsung Electronics executive Joo Woo-sik stating they “didn’t mean to do any harm to domestic MP3 manufacturers”; Reigncom, the parent company of iRiver, says: “we can hardly declare a price war with Apple. We’ll counter Apple’s challenge by releasing new concept products.”) [via] - Apple Corners Korean MP3 Players (more quotes from Korean manufacturers; ReignCom [iRiver] says Koreans are not too keen for iPods as Japanese and Americans cause they can’t reproduce the tracks bought by domestic fee-based music services; Cowon [iAudio] expects to be able to compete by lowering prices as flash memory chips get cheaper; Samsung has no plans to lower its prices—good luck with that one, guys) [via]
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