Rio Brand Closes Doors 377
Castar writes "In a press release today, D&M Holdings announced the end of the Rio brand. Rio had a troubled history, but were responsible for the first mass-market MP3 players as well as more recent popular players such as the Rio Karma. This closing follows the sale of Rio's IP to Sigmatel, maker of chipsets for many audio players, including the iPod Shuffle." From the release: "The company's decision to exit the Rio business followed a determination that the mass-market portable digital audio player market was not a strong enough strategic fit with the company's core and profitable premium consumer electronics brands to warrant additional investment in the category. The original goal of strategic advantage with wholly-owned and branded portable client devices was reconsidered in the context of the costs required to effectively scale and compete in this sector, where competition has grown intense. D&M Holdings will now focus all its resources on the core Premium AV business and advanced content server products."
Re:One down... (Score:2, Interesting)
One of the coolest products... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why I didn't buy (Score:5, Interesting)
Disposable computing. (Score:1, Interesting)
With the increasing price of oil, and consequently plastics, I can't help wondering what the face of computing is going to look like five or ten years down the line. The average computer uses as much as two circus tents worth of coal to run on any given day. Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice, but even more is being spent on processing power well beyond the needs of the average user.
Inefficiencies in microcomponent fabrication mean that a great deal of the electricity that goes into your computer is given off as heat. Techniques such as reversible or quantum computing hold much promise in the future for putting more energy into computation but today it is up to the consumer to safeguard the environment.
In a way, the argument is the same as with vehicles -- most people don't need a SUV or a top-of-the-line system but many choose to get them to compensate for inadequacies or because of marketing -- but with computers at least it is impossible to argue you are "safer" for having a faster system. Indeed, you are more likely to run viruses or worms without realizing it because you don't notice the hit in operating performance.
I've noticed that I've been holding on to computer equipment longer and longer these days. Oh sure, I have to fix a power supply here and a fan there, but besides slack engineering standards from software companies there is little reason to keep up with the hardware treadmill... and at least one compelling reason not to.
Similarly we should demand quality in design and upgradability in our portable electronics. This comes with a cost, but one that pays dividends in reliability, environment, and sustainable computing.
Well, err, because they had like 1% marketshare? (Score:1, Interesting)
iPod is the walkman of the '00s. Other players will catch up by the end of the decade though, and then it will turn into a market like '90s walkman clones. The marketplace will still be defined by the term iPod though.
A British newspaper even identified a new social class in the UK
Re:One of the coolest products... (Score:4, Interesting)
They cost like $2000+ new and they were worth it. The iPod wasn't even a glimmer in steve's eye, and there's still NOTHING like it on the market yet. CDR mp3? ha! Plug in my ipod? bah. You can have my MkII carplayer when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
Not Surprising (Score:4, Interesting)
Farewell Rio. You made some great products, you made some poor ones, but I do love my partially-working Karma
Re:One fan sorry to see them go (Score:4, Interesting)
The thing is, most of the iPod detractors don't seem to figure in the user interface. I've tried all the different devices at Best Buy and any other retailer that has them out to play with. I pretty much concluded that most, if not all of the competitors are quite a bit more clumsy in the UI department than they need to be. I realize that there is a matter of personal preferences here but the operation and button layout often didn't seem to be as intuitive as it should be.
The above statements don't apply to shuffle though. My sister has one, and the slider switch is poorly thought out, and I do occasionally want to know what the song name is, etc.
Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)
Diamond Multimedia was on the road to recovery. Despite falling sales of modems, and the video card market crash after 3dfx started making their own boards (which also claimed Jazz, Hercules, Orchid and Canopus's US market, just to name a few), DMM had made smart moves into selling motherboards and, of course, the Rio.
Then Diamond made the boneheaded decision to purchase S3. It was like they had done a complete 180...S3 was in serious trouble, and Diamond was in no position to bail them out.
The Rio's successor was more of the same: just more built-in memory, no new features. As a result, they lost momentuum.
Eventually, Diamond faltered under the wave of crap. S3 was sold off to VIA, and the audio division of Diamond became SonicBlue. Then ReplayTV sucked, and SonicBlue missed the boat on small hard drive mp3 players.
So, you see the lovely lack of foundation SonicBlue has been trying to stand on. I wonder what they're going to dop now that they sell virtually nothing. Maybe sell off the name to some other company.
Indicentally, I've noticed that the Diamond name has been revived recently, not a bad move for a distributer wanting to open a new market in the US.
Re:Proof that first to market doesn't equal succes (Score:4, Interesting)
There was a product called the Mp3Man put out by a South Korean company named Saehan. I worked for the US distributor of said product. I still have it in a box somewhere.
Re:One fan sorry to see them go (Score:4, Interesting)
I take issue with the "product" part of that sentence. I would put my Karma up against any iPod, any day. The only thing the iPod had over the Karma was looks. In every other way, the Karma is the superior product. Just like Windows, the iPud wins on better marketing and sexier wrapping paper. *sigh*
I looked at a lot of options when I was trying to come up with a system to play mp3s in my car and I ended up with an iPod. The adapter I bought allows me to plug my iPod into the CD changer controls on my original head unit. I can easily skip around my playlist and the iPod turns off automatically when I put in a CD or switch to radio.
The most valuable asset of the iPod is its interface... not just it's GUI but the little connector that you can plug all manner of things into. The superiority of the iPod is quickly coming from not just what it can do but also what it can be made to do.
Re:Proof that first to market doesn't equal succes (Score:2, Interesting)
Bough an iPod for the UI, not the looks. (Score:4, Interesting)
I bought an iPod for the UI, period. It could have looked like a spike-filled frozen turkey turning moldy and I still would have bought it.
I actually feel embarassed I own something that looks "trendy" as you say, but I'll suffer for well-designed UI any day.
Having briefly used a Karma I actually cannot fully understand what part of uisng that device you consider superiour to the iPod. I do of course only use my device to play music and perhaps there's some additional feature you make use of I would have no use for.
Re:One fan sorry to see them go (Score:3, Interesting)