Taiwanese Vendors Race into Nascent PMP Market

Dear Agoracom Family,

I want to thank all of you for your patience with us over the past 48 hours and apologize for what was admittedly a botched launch of our new site.

As you can see, we have reverted back to the previous version of the site while we address multiple forum functionality flaws that inexplicably made their way into the launch.

To this end:

1.We have identified 8 fundamental but easily fixable flaws that will be corrected in the coming week, so that you can continue to use the forums exactly as you've been accustomed to.

2.Additionally we will also be implementing a couple of design improvements to "tighten up" the look and feel of the forums.

Sincerely,

George et al

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Taiwanese Vendors Race into Nascent PMP Market

posted on Jun 20, 2005 05:58AM

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/neasia/001367

Taiwanese Vendors Race into Nascent PMP Market

Apple Computer currently holds the MP3 crown with its iPod line, but some Taiwan-based rivals are eagerly jumping into the market for portable devices that can play music, video, and store digital photos.

Leading the development of these players is a handful of established IT vendors in Taiwan. These range from FIC, a second-tier motherboard maker, PQI, an established vendor of USB Flash drive and portable media storage devices, and Mobinote, a pure PMP startup.

Known as portable media players (PMP), these devices have been slow in attracting consumer demand due to their hefty price tag, low battery life, and lack of video content. The PMP is widely viewed as a natural extension of MP3 players because it adds video playback to music function. PMPs are small enough to fit in a coat pocket and allow people to take video, still pictures and music with them anywhere they go. The different types of media can be transferred to a PMP from a PC or a personal video recorder (PVR) using a USB 2.0 connection.

Microsoft began a marketing blitz for PMP in 2004, hoping vendors would develop machines to run on the Microsoft Portable Media Center platform. So far, only a few consumer electronics and IT companies have been willing to risk the development cost associated with PMP production. Some of the PMPs available on the market now are from Samsung, PQI, Creative, Olympus, RCA and Archos. These players range from US$400 to as high as US$900, depending on screen resolution, storage capacity, and video playback format compatibility.

Patrick Pae, director of multimedia market at PQI, said the lack of video content to go with the current crop of PMP players has not discouraged his company from spending R&D capital to develop its PMP.

``Users had the same complaints about original MP3 prototypes, but ever since the iPod nobody is complaining now,`` said Pae. ``The same will apply to PMP players, because once these machines are out in the market, we don`t have to worry about finding the video content to play on them. These issues will be solved later.``

The flagship model for PQI is the mPack P800, which supports MPEG4, WMV9 and AC3 formats. It plays movies on-the-go and allows users to record movies and TV programs directly from a TV, or the built-in FM radio. Pae also said that the mPack can read CompactFlash cards through its onboard reader and displays photos on its 3.5-inch TFT LCD screen. Memory Stick, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard and SmartMedia cards are supported through the optional CFC interface 4-in-1 adapter.