Creative try to detract from the success of the iPod by claiming to be taking some of Apple's market share. It's a bit of a non-story, really. though I do find it amusing that they are only now intending 'to design the right product' - what were they doing before, trying to design the wrong one?
Rio president Hugh Cooney told Business Week that his company intends to 'design the right product at the right value and then use any kind of buzz we can take advantage of.'
According to market researchers at NPD Group, the iPod accounts for 54.7 per cent of total digital-music-player units sold, while Rio accounts for just 8.9 per cent.
Vice-president for marketing Dan Torres believes that Rio is already taking away market share from Apple. He said: 'When we look at the entire space, Apple makes only a hard-disk player. We have a new hard-disk offering in the Carbon 5 gigabyte. It's a little hard for us to figure out what share we're taking from them, but we're competing with them directly. So far we think we're doing quite well, and we'll be taking share away from iPod mini.'