Is Creative Slowly Dying?

[sumx4182]

Creative is done IMHO...the X-fi sounds like a gimmick, expecially in the new player, the design is just a regurgitation of the Zen with shittier buttons that are actually painful to use (who thought THAT was a good idea?) and they STILL can't integrate a fuckin SD card...seriously? For a company that had a GREAT lil' player in the ZVM (and i use lil' loosely since it was kind of a moose in terms of size), they have REALLY jumped the shark.

[CrowdAds]

[musichound]

Well, you never know. This is what most people thought about Apple. IMO what saved them was the iPod and not the Macintosh. All Creative needs to do is think of something that most people would want in a player, and market it wisely. I do think that the Zen X-Fi is not nearly enough and SD integration was an absolute must to give it a jump start.

[JK98]

Imo Creative should concentrate on making players that are AA battery based, or that use a removable lithium ion battery. Creative needs to make what Apple, Sandisk, and Sony don't make.

[sumx4182]

Originally Posted by JK98

Creative needs to make what Apple, Sandisk, and Sony don't make.

They already do...garbage...

[no9]

Does anyone even know if the zvm was even their best selling player? I know it was the best but what kinda units sold we talking about.With Ipod Touch selling for almost $500 why not make a zen with 64gb and be the first on the market. If you won't market your players then you need to at least be an innovator or just sell in singapore

[ike]

Originally Posted by JK98

Imo Creative should concentrate on making players that are AA battery based, or that use a removable lithium ion battery. Creative needs to make what Apple, Sandisk, and Sony don't make.

At least SOMEONE needs to make what Apple, Sandisk, and Sony don't make.

[sumx4182]

Originally Posted by no9

Does anyone even know if the zvm was even their best selling player? I know it was the best but what kinda units sold we talking about.With Ipod Touch selling for almost $500 why not make a zen with 64gb and be the first on the market. If you won't market your players then you need to at least be an innovator or just sell in singapore

throwing more memory in a turd doesn't make it any less of a turd...The Zen is pretty much crap. It's cheap and plasticy feeling (why do you think Ipod went with glass and metal?)...IMHO the navigation is for shit, it WSODs constantly for MANY uses, the SD doesnt integrate, the menus are getting stale, the SQ is middle of the road...they are just content releasing average stuff...if you wanna be average, fine, but don't expect to compete or keep customers...giving the Zen 64gb isn't gonna fix all the other problems with it...

[The DarkSide]

when all is said and done - Creative isn't going anywhere. US fan base is limited - but around the world Creative is at least at the prince level. Guess who the KING is? If Creative got together w/Sandisc - now THAT would be something (I hope).

[musichound]

Originally Posted by nywytboy68

when all is said and done - Creative isn't going anywhere. US fan base is limited - but around the world Creative is at least at the prince level. Guess who the KING is? If Creative got together w/Sandisc - now THAT would be something (I hope).

This is a very valid point and provides a good example of looking from the outside in. The U.S. is a relatively small market for Creative, and they are probably focusing where the meat of their sales are. Another good example is iRiver. Most of the U.S. does not purchase their players but is probably number one in Korea. Now if only these companies focused on what us Yanks want the most.

[no9]

Originally Posted by sumx4182

throwing more memory in a turd doesn't make it any less of a turd...The Zen is pretty much crap. It's cheap and plasticy feeling (why do you think Ipod went with glass and metal?)...IMHO the navigation is for shit, it WSODs constantly for MANY uses, the SD doesnt integrate, the menus are getting stale, the SQ is middle of the road...they are just content releasing average stuff...if you wanna be average, fine, but don't expect to compete or keep customers...giving the Zen 64gb isn't gonna fix all the other problems with it...

Man your more pissed than I am at Cowon USA Support 64Gb would make it less of a reliant on the SD with no integration. And what I meant was they need to do what the other guys aren't. 64g 128g 256g in flash would be pretty groundbreaking. With STEVE and the sheep taking up 70+% of the market, its them and everybody else. The ZVM was too bulky and built with junk material also and locked up every time you wanted to track up 3 tracks but the propriatary alternative Ipod had its own problems. Creative's been going down hill slow for years, how else could you get best at CES 2 or 3 years in a row and lose market share

[joyounghoon]

No offence, but most of the newer Zens are really trendy crap, IMO.

[beteks]

I miss the Zen vision M and all the old players creative made. they were all colorful.

[no9]

Originally Posted by joyounghoon

No offence, but most of the newer Zens are really trendy crap, IMO.

You are correct sir. No more hard drive players all flash I really hate that trend

[Soren34]

The quality Creative's players have definitely gone a notch down, and they've become less popular in the US. But I'm not sure if they're going to go out of business.

In the last generation of MP3 players (with the Vision M/W, and V+) Creative's players had better features than most of their competitors. In this generation, their players have been quite mediocre and don't offer any unique features.

[Riolist]

Creative has baffled me for a long time with their seeming disregard for customer wants (well, at least this customer) but in their defense, I don't think they're completely the crap company some are saying they are, but I agree, they're getting there.

I disagree that the Zen is a total mediocre piece of crap. I think it has several desirable features that other companies haven't matched yet (but some have). First, I really don't understand why people think it's 'cheap feeling'. It's lightweight and made of plastic - that doesn't automatically equate to cheap. They used plastic instead of metal, big deal. It makes it easier to carry. It's still well-built, and the actual design is just about the nicest i've seen in any player. I agree that the sd card should be integrated, but it's still ahead of players that don't have any expansion slot at all. Another feature that puts it ahead of many players is bookmarking. Creative has had that feature for a long time and there's still many mainstream companies that ignore it even though it's almost a necessity to listen to long podcasts and audiobooks.

I don't like a lot of the thing's Creative is doing; taking away FM recording was stupid and mean, other companies have it, so what's the problem? It just shows disrespect and disregard for the consumer; refusal to allow MSC mode in addition to MTP, which 90% of other companies are now doing; and their schizophrenic attitude towards memory expansion - love it enough to build it into their players but hate it enough to keep it separate and crippled - Geez! someone at Creative needs to have their medication adjusted!

I also think the ZenXfi is a step backwards, in both design and ease of use. It takes away more than it gives, it just seems like a real stupid idea.

Why couldn't they just make a flash based ZVM - thinner, lighter, but with the same features? Why can't they integrate the sd card? Why can't they allow MSC mode?

Just on the off chance that those at Creative responsible for these decisions ever read this, just let me say: you're some seriously stupid SOB's - don't play dumb and say we didn't warn you when it all comes crashing down.

[Loaded4th]

Even though Creative Zen [MP3 Player] units tend to produce good quality sound, some of their design and marketing strategies leave much to be desired.
The Zen V suffers serious lockups when uploading a large number of files. Most Zen units cannot display embedded images (Album Art) within mp3 files.
The idea behind sealing the rechargeable lithium battery is a nickel and dime tactic, as is the policy of only allowing the battery to be charged with the data lines active, so they can sell an over-priced charger. Actually, you can use any USB charger in conjunction with most non-powered hubs to activate the data lines for charging!
Their service and postal charges agitate me (totally free with Sansa), so they've lost me as a customer! Their overall strategy is self-destructive, perhaps they have the wrong person in charge of marketing!

[Riolist]

Originally Posted by Loaded4th

The idea behind sealing the rechargeable lithium battery is a nickel and dime tactic, as is the policy of only allowing the battery to be charged with the data lines active, so they can sell an over-priced charger. Actually, you can use any USB charger in conjunction with most non-powered hubs to activate the data lines for charging!

I can't really hold the non-replaceable battery thing against them since 90% of the market does the same.
Regarding the data lines and charging, thanks for pointing that out. I just bought a used Zen V+ and I thought it was broken or something because it seemed to have trouble taking a charge. What really gets me is I looked in the manual and there was no information on charging, no mention of it at all. Unbelievable!
Some of the things Creative does are just really, really weird - seriously!! btw, the Zen doesn't have that limitation, it will charge directly from a USB charger. I guess Creative did that for the sake of inconsistency. It just makes you wanna get these guys alone in a room for a couple of hours, y'know?

[bluesman]

Some of the things Creative does are just really, really weird - seriously!!

Indeed. Here we have a professional company who can't even get their SD cards integrated. Meanwhile, smaller companies seem to have no problem with that.

[Spillthebeans]

The SD card in the Creative Players are an add-on bonus, not a crucial feature. Remember that the Zens compare well in price with other MP3 players of the same capacity. An 8 GB Zen is about $110. You won't find players with the same features and screen to be cheaper at 8 GB. And they don't even have SD cards. If Creative didn't add an SD card slot, no one would even complain. People would say the Zen is a good deal for the price. But Creative throws people a bone and they rip them apart. Could it be better? Yeah, but if its not so useful to you, just ignore it and you still get a great deal of a player for the price.

Plus most of Creative's players sound is in the top tier according to all the reviews, better than the iPod but maybe sound quality isn't that important for music players to most people.

It would be nice to have removable batteris but most of the big players don't have this either so why single Creative out? I have some complaints with the Zen, including its volume not going very high, its plastic look, it's mediocre navigation, and bad button layout, but the other things mentioned seems off.

[no9]

Good point Spillthebeans. Just expected so much from the successor to the ZVM throne is all, and when compared I just lose sight of the big picture.