Exciting Creatve Players

Creative stirred interest ing its flagging Zen music players late yesterday by hinting at a major update to its Zen music player line. The company's US president Craig McHugh garnered attention during a financial conference call by maintaing an unusual level of secrecy around the company's future players, breaking the company's typically very open policy.

"We do have something very exciting coming in the MP3 area," he said. "[But] we wanted to wait for the press release and the global launch."

While promising for the Singapore-based company, however, the response was in part prompted by the poor results for the opening months of 2007. The company posted a $23.6 million loss for the first three months of the year after its overall sales dropped in its core Asian and US markets. McHugh declined to elaborate on figures but alluded to necessary price cuts for its music players, with some models remaining largely unchanged since mid-2006 or earlier.

The reference to future Zen jukeboxes may have applied to the increasingly likely Zen Stone, says one fan site. Reportedly discovered listed with multiple outlets, the Stone should directly compete with Apple's second-generation iPod shuffle and is said to be as small and round as its Buddhist namesake. It will come in Creative's typically wide range of colors and should be small enough to justify not only an armband accessory but also a keychain add-on.

The likely screenless player is expected to surface on or near May 15th at a price of only $50 for 1GB, undercutting its Apple rival by nearly $30. Other models were implied in the news but haven't produced leaks online.

By Electronista Staff