Gateway Introduces MP3 Player
Quote:
Gateway will release its first portable music player on Tuesday as it continues to expand into consumer electronics.
The Gateway Digital Music Player combines three functions in one, according to Rick Griencewic, director of digital audio at Gateway. It can play MP3 files, it can be used as a portable storage device for shuttling data between two PCs, and it can also function as a digital voice recorder.
The device can be plugged directly into a PC through a USB slot.
"You don't have a cable you can lose, which can generate a support call," Griencewic said.
Like Sony, Hewlett-Packard and to a lesser degree Apple Computer, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway plans to come out with a wide variety of branded household gizmos that can be used, and sold with, its PCs.
Overall, Gateway plans to release 50 products fitting into 15 different product categories this year. Internally, the company has formed groups to devise products for the audio, photography, video and connectivity (i.e., home networking) markets.
So far the strategy has produced at least one hit. Sales of plasma TVs helped the company reduce losses in the second quarter. However, Gateway had to delay the release of its first handheld from mid-July to mid-August to conduct more testing.
Other products include DVD recorders and LCD TVs.
Two versions of the music player will come out this month. On Tuesday, a version containing 128MB of storage capacity will hit the market and sell for $129.99. A $169.99 version holding 256MB of memory is scheduled for release Aug. 14.
These initial players use flash memory to store data. Gateway is also looking at the possibility of coming out with music players with small hard drives, as well as with portable CD players.
"It takes a little bit longer to develop a hard drive player," Griencewic said. "We saw this as an easy way to get on the scoreboard early."
Flash player shipments should continue to rise, added Susan Kervorkian, an analyst at IDC, because the cost-per-bit keeps declining. Manufacturers can now offer 256MB devices for less then $200.
"The price point (of Gateway's players) is very competitive," Kervorkian said. "The form factor and direct USB connectivity is very compelling."
One of the features that Griencewic predicted would resonate with the public is direct connectivity. Currently, the Creative Labs Nomad Muvo player accounts for nearly half of the third-party MP3 players sold on Gateway's Web site. It is also one of the few MP3 players that connects directly to PCs without a cord.
Although the new products mark Gateway's first foray into selling branded portable players, the company has sold music products before. In November 2000, Gateway came out with an MP3 player that connected to stereo systems.
However, the product, like similar jukeboxes from Compaq Computer and Dell, only stayed around for a brief period due to slow sales.
Gateway will release its first portable music player on Tuesday as it continues to expand into consumer electronics.
The Gateway Digital Music Player combines three functions in one, according to Rick Griencewic, director of digital audio at Gateway. It can play MP3 files, it can be used as a portable storage device for shuttling data between two PCs, and it can also function as a digital voice recorder.
The device can be plugged directly into a PC through a USB slot.
"You don't have a cable you can lose, which can generate a support call," Griencewic said.
Like Sony, Hewlett-Packard and to a lesser degree Apple Computer, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway plans to come out with a wide variety of branded household gizmos that can be used, and sold with, its PCs.
Overall, Gateway plans to release 50 products fitting into 15 different product categories this year. Internally, the company has formed groups to devise products for the audio, photography, video and connectivity (i.e., home networking) markets.
So far the strategy has produced at least one hit. Sales of plasma TVs helped the company reduce losses in the second quarter. However, Gateway had to delay the release of its first handheld from mid-July to mid-August to conduct more testing.
Other products include DVD recorders and LCD TVs.
Two versions of the music player will come out this month. On Tuesday, a version containing 128MB of storage capacity will hit the market and sell for $129.99. A $169.99 version holding 256MB of memory is scheduled for release Aug. 14.
These initial players use flash memory to store data. Gateway is also looking at the possibility of coming out with music players with small hard drives, as well as with portable CD players.
"It takes a little bit longer to develop a hard drive player," Griencewic said. "We saw this as an easy way to get on the scoreboard early."
Flash player shipments should continue to rise, added Susan Kervorkian, an analyst at IDC, because the cost-per-bit keeps declining. Manufacturers can now offer 256MB devices for less then $200.
"The price point (of Gateway's players) is very competitive," Kervorkian said. "The form factor and direct USB connectivity is very compelling."
One of the features that Griencewic predicted would resonate with the public is direct connectivity. Currently, the Creative Labs Nomad Muvo player accounts for nearly half of the third-party MP3 players sold on Gateway's Web site. It is also one of the few MP3 players that connects directly to PCs without a cord.
Although the new products mark Gateway's first foray into selling branded portable players, the company has sold music products before. In November 2000, Gateway came out with an MP3 player that connected to stereo systems.
However, the product, like similar jukeboxes from Compaq Computer and Dell, only stayed around for a brief period due to slow sales.
Comments
USB not as fast as FireWire, and as it has "no cable to lose", you'd have to have an easily accessable USB port on your PC.
There are currently loads of this type of product on the market today, the Creative MuVo being a good example.
Probably still sell pretty well at the price.
Flash player shipments should continue to rise, added Susan Kervorkian, an analyst at IDC, because the cost-per-bit keeps declining. Manufacturers can now offer 256MB devices for less then $200.
Does anyone else find it very fitting that the analyst contacted about this product is a Kervorkian?
"The form factor and direct USB connectivity is very compelling."
Sounds like she thinks this is a breakthrough or something. Gimmie a break!
And one last thing...... its a fugly.
The "How much is enough?" question comes up. The 5-40GB variously available in different HDD products is nice, but do you need it once you can get a day's worth of tuneage into a player?
256 is a little slim, 512 starts to look better, and at a GB of solid state, I think we start to see the answer to all day (8 hr plus) musical joy. By that time we may be looking at 20-80GB HDD players, but still, those beomce two different markets.
USB2/FW are fast enough that doing a quick "sync" is no problem.
With that in mind, lets design a better player than the iPod.
-512MB-1GB of internal storage plus a flash slot (CF or XD)
-A voice recorder with built in mic that encodes straight to MP3/+ or uses a line-in to rip MP3's straight from an audio source.
-A user replaceable battery. There are solid-state players that can go for hours with just one AA cell. This is a better long term solution. It could ship with a rechargable internal battery that conforms to the standard cell shape, so that if it dies yoyu have the option of replacing it or using disposables.
FM/DAB tuner. DAB rocks and it's free and there are now portable DAB only players for about 160USD.
Thumb drive functionality. Done.
Of course these features could also be added to an HDD based player like the iPod. The iPod and it's cousins would be more of a player/digital wallet, while solid state devices would be more like a player/thumbdrive.
I do, however, think that the HDD and built-in battery of most HDD players constitutes a weak link, fromt he standpoint of reliability (HDD) and longevity (battery).
Solid state players can fix this at the cost of capacity. A player like the one I mention would have to cost 400. Would you buy that over a 15-30GB iPod? I think some people would, they'd really be two different types of product then. A runner might prefer the solid state player, a vacationer might prefer the iPod.
I find that particularily entertaining as a selling point.
Originally posted by Matsu
The "How much is enough?" question comes up. The 5-40GB variously available in different HDD products is nice, but do you need it once you can get a day's worth of tuneage into a player?
If you don't want to have to spend a lot time deciding ahead of time which small subset of your music you're going to want to listen to during the day, then you want as much storage capacity as you can get. It's not about how much music you're going to listen to over the course of a day, it's about the range of choices available to you at any given moment.
"We saw this as an easy way to get on the scoreboard early."
Originally posted by Matsu
Solid state players can fix this at the cost of capacity. A player like the one I mention would have to cost 400. Would you buy that over a 15-30GB iPod? I think some people would, they'd really be two different types of product then. A runner might prefer the solid state player, a vacationer might prefer the iPod.
I think 4-5GB is about the least a player should be, so I'm still waiting for the 'perfect' player.
Would the IBM microdrives be close enough to solid state? I was thinking Apple could make a tiny player with the microdrive. The controls only on a remote, perhaps one with an LCD, and the body would be blank with only an LCD screen. The face wouldn't be much bigger than a book of matches and it would be pretty close to solid state. This would compliment the iPod so in time it could go 100% solid state when the media allowed it, and also so the iPod could go huge and add whatever crazy A/V features people want next.
Originally posted by Flounder
This was my favorite:
"We saw this as an easy way to get on the scoreboard early."
Well with all the damn Gateway Country stores that they bombarded us with a while back, it will be an easy way to generate sales. But, the iPod will still be the winner, IMHO.
Originally posted by shetline
If you don't want to have to spend a lot time deciding ahead of time which small subset of your music you're going to want to listen to during the day, then you want as much storage capacity as you can get. It's not about how much music you're going to listen to over the course of a day, it's about the range of choices available to you at any given moment.
Hey, I don't disagree with that at all. If I were to buy an MP3 player right now, I'd take an iPod. But with a GB and good quality rips at about 10MB per song, that's 100 songs worth of 224Kbps VBR music, roughly. You could squeeze more with 160VBR or AAC @128. So, if someone is more concerned with ruggedness vs maximum storage, that may become a viable player option in the coming months, especially if it comes with the extra features I mentioned.
Ironically, with iTunes, Apple may have the best solution to the "selection" problem, even for smaller capacity players. Make a bunch of playlists and DL them to suit your mood. You're more limited once you're untethered, but a point of dimishing returns comes in eventually. You can't really listen to more than a couple of hours at a time, and it is YOUR own music on the thing to begin with, presumably they're all songs that you like or you wouldn't put them on the player in the first place.
Flash memory is really starting to grow by insane leaps. There are 6GB CF cards (insanely expensive) but 1GB is moving into the realm of believeability and should make a substantial drop this year with the intro of main stream 1.5 and 2GB cards. There's even 1500USD 4GB CF card on the market now. Expensive to be sure, but it wasn't long ago that 512 cost nearly that much.
In a couple of years a solid state player could sport between 2-8GB of memory, if the flash makers are to be believed, they're talking about 8GB in something as small as xD, in CF they could easily go bigger. That's looking pretty good, even for those people who like to keep an entire collection in their pockets.
Bunge,
I kinda sorta had the same thought. There's a 4GB microdrive now, but would that be more or less delicate than the 1.8" in the iPod's now? I could go for an iPod with a replacable microdrive -- drop in new capacity as it becomes feasible. Who knows?
A solid/disc split in the iPod line, memory prices permitting could reach a lot of people. Imagine an iPod even samller than the current 10Gb models and without any worries over failing batteries or drives? hmmm...
at any rate, not for a couple of years...
Originally posted by Gabid
"You don't have a cable you can lose, which can generate a support call," Griencewic said.
I find that particularily enetertaining as a selling point.
(support) "hello, this is gateway support, thanks for holding how may i help you?"
(customer) "yeah........uh....you seen my cable?"
Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar
(support) "hello, this is gateway support, thanks for holding how may i help you?"
(customer) "yeah........uh....you seen my cable?"
-Me
Originally posted by ast3r3x
Guess what, it's still over $100 cheaper then the iPod, so it will do well. Apple Needs the 5GB iPod at $199. I honestly believe they would sell ALOT more. Perhaps they are worried about the others models not getting enough attention...well maybe. If they can afford to give me an iPod for $69 (Edu. Discount: PowerBook + Printer($99) + iPod($269) = $300 rebate) then they can afford to sell the 5GB iPod at $199. Hope I didn't make any mistakes.
-Me
I agree. When I heard the news of the 30GB iPod, I thought it meant I would be able to afford a 5GB iPod. When I checked, I found out I was wrong. A $199 iPod would sell like hotcakes, even though the current iPod is already selling that fast. Plus, it would put that Gateway crap out of it's misery.
Originally posted by torifile
Next thing you know, buymusic.com will be pushing this thing as one of its top sellers.
Now that you mention it. What did happen to buymusic?