Samsung says: "We'll be no. 1 in MP3 players by 2007"

Apple better watch their back. Sort of. First Creative declared war on them back in November, now Samsung's coming after them, with an announcement yesterday that within two years they expect to the world's number one maker of MP3 players, predicting that they'll own something like 25-30% of the global market for digital audio players by 2007. We won't bore you with why this is going to be tough (even if Apple wasn't the resident baller in this market, there are still plenty of other players that would give them a fight for the top spot), but Samsung has launched several new models lately, including that 20GB YH-J70 portable video player we spotted at CES (which is pictured on the far right); a version with a smaller drive called the YH-J50 (the one second from the right); their overly-blinged pocket watch-style YP-W3 player (not pictured); a wearable flash-based player called the YP-F1 (pictured at left), that comes with 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB flavors; and a successor to the YP-T7 called the YP-T8 that comes with between 256MB to 2GB of flash memory and a 1.8-inch color screen (pictured second from the left).

[Via I4U]

[john @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

you always see these other companys talking about how they will take over the market by providing consumers with choices rather than the apple ipod all in one solution but they dont seem to really get it do they? that approach just makes the market totally flodded with prouducts that all look the same, act the same and are all marketed the same if at all. its hard to tell the difference between the things more or less distinguish which ones are more valuble than others. all of these random players creeping out of no where all get lost in the mix. what apple has going for them in the general publis eye is that easy and, more importantly, trendy solution that gets passed on through peoples minds. they have the advantage of having that one name to market, the ipod, which makes it easy to get levereage in a market totally flooded with a bunch of facless players with names like the ztx-3000000 all of which enter my mind and then leave right on out again...

[Simon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Before they can take over that much market share they better start paying attention to the quality of their products and their customer satisfaction. My YH-925 20gig player doesn't support OGG - contrary to their website and a CNET review. They're also inconsistent about their message for future firmware upgrades. Their ideas seem good and the packaging looks nice, but I get the impression that they just don't follow through in the details and useability.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Well, on the plus side, Samsung does have the advantage of superior eye candy in their PR pictures.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

indeed, their PR are very eye candy :) at this rate samsung might announce taking over the world very soon!

[Poolshark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

The most importnat question in all this fuss is ...

Where is Carmi? I need my daily does of Carmi posts... :)

[World but not US @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

The keyword here is "world". It wouldn't surprise me if Samsung does become the world leader despite Apple having 99% market-share in USA. Asian countries are vastly improving their economies, more of their people have the money to buy an mp3 player, they'd rather buy "local", and most of them aren't that impressed with simplified gadgets.

[Nathan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Samsung does seem to have developed their own RDF, which, since it's long been Apple's greatest asset, could signal a real showdown.

[Monmin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I'll take the one on the right please. The mp3 players look cool too. hahahahahaha. I crack myself up.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

"Asian countries are vastly improving their economies, more of their people have the money to buy an mp3 player, they'd rather buy "local", and most of them aren't that impressed with simplified gadgets."

Erm, apparently these people didn't get that memo: http://tonytalkstech.com/images/ipodtokyoqueue2.jpg

[Seni0r @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

More Napster compatible players!!!!!!!!!!!

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

"Well, on the plus side, Samsung does have the advantage of superior eye candy in their PR pictures."

Let's hear it for eye candy !

I mean really, who would you rather have hand deliver you your MP3 player...

Steve Jobs or these Samsung Chicks ?

[bazald @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

All I want is 40+ gigs, FLAC, decent style, and no Apple logo. I have a feeling Rio is going to pull through for me any day now...

#5 - Hopefully we scared Carmi off... They really should be using the nofollow tag though... -_-

[Big Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I liked Carmi's posts, and I hope he returns. His occasional insight and frequent thought more than made up for the 30 characters that linked to his blog, especially compared to most of the garbage comments that I can't imagine people thought were worth the click to add.

Besides, trying to "scare" people off from posting by making fun of them is laaaaame. Even if it shouldn't work.

[MGL @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I will NEVER buy another Samsung digital audio player -- I purchased a Samsung yepp NEU player in 2002 for my wife as a Christmas present. She threw it back at me a week later, muttering about the worst Christmas present she ever got. And I had to agree. I occasionally attempted to use the damn thing after that, but was constantly reinstalling the USB driver, always struggled to set a reliable connection between the PC and the yepp, and on the odd chance it connected transfers were painfully SLLOOOWWW. Sound quality sucked, and the software ESPECIALLY sucked -- the other software option was RealJukebox (Ick). Bought my wife an iPod the following Christmas, and she hasn't stopped thanking me since. The yepp went in the trash long ago. Thanks, Samsung, for swearing me off of non-iPod players for good.

[someone @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

By 2007, most of the people will be using their cellphone for playing mp3 already...... Face it, who wants to carry two devices if you can have it all in one?

[Goodman @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Aside from most of these being pretty plain, most of them aren't compatible with services like Napster To Go. So, why should we care about them?

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

"By 2007, most of the people will be using their cellphone for playing mp3 already"

And Samsung makes phones, don't they ? Perhaps that's even what they're hinting at. To be honest, many of the tech blog postings about phones I skip over, but isn't Samsung one of the main companies pushing MP3 playing phones ?

So if what you say is true (and many agree with you), this might in fact be the only way Samsung COULD dominate the market...

Cuz last I checked, the IPod ain't no phone...

And if Apple sticks to it's design philosophy of simplicity, it never will be...

[Alternate Energy Blog @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Samsung and LG are giving Nokia a run for their money, why shouldn't they challenge Apple?

Of course in iRiver and Cowon's iAudio they have some pretty strong domestic competition.

And as another poster pointed out mp3 players are increasingly being integrated into cellphones where Samsung have already captured market share.

[larry @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

>>>More Napster compatible players!!!!!!!!!!!

what is this, 1999?
whatever Napster is now, it is nothing like it used to be. it is a tired brand w/ and awful mrktg strategy. and their iconography suckx. :X

[Marian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

#1 is very right.

Yet another asian company that doesn't understand the market.

[Dralt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Oh Well, I don't see how Apple could beat Samsung in prices.
I think the iPod dominance is about to end.

[Eleon Gonzales @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Yes I often wonder if Carmi just sits around waiting for a post so he can rep his blog some more... I guess the occasional insightful commment makes up for it though.

BTW... I call the one on the left... and none of these mp3 players are going to make it till they ditch the number/2 letter names, at least in the us.

[dawggpie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

The problem with creating a product that is a cultural fad or fashion item, as apple has with the ipod, is that it will become played out after a while and peoples' interest will fade. iPod is the UGG boots of the mp3 world heh (lame referrance but a friend was just telling me how popular those are). Going forward, I don't think there will be any distinct iPod feature that will separate it from the competition. Competition's software will become better, players will be easier to use, etc. iTunes won't beat out p2p networks as the prefered way to d/l music unless price drops lower, so that probably won't be their advantage.

#1, i completely agree. When i think of Samsung's product line I can't pick out any 1 distinct product. They need to stop cranking out dozens of devices and focus on a few so that people can understand the product line and actually know the name of a specific product that they want to buy.

I also agree with people that MP3 cell phones are going to be the device of choice going forward. Makes complete sense. If i'm listening to music and a call comes in the device will automatically pause my music, switch to my call, after call it will resume my music where it left off. No fumbling between devices. Samsung and Sony/Ericsson seem to be leading the way.

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Admittedly, I'm biased against Apple products, however, I've always sort-of liked the iPod. I wish it played WMAs, though.

I picked up a "SamPod" mostly out of curiosity and I like it. It works with WMP 10, which gives me a choice of 8 music stores. And the newest firmware plays OGG, too.

Take a look at my photos:

http://www.robert.to/reviews/sampod.html

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Admittedly, I'm biased against Apple products, however, I've always sort-of liked the iPod. I wish it played WMAs, though.

I picked up a "SamPod" mostly out of curiosity and I like it. It works with WMP 10, which gives me a choice of 8 music stores. And the newest firmware plays OGG, too.

Take a look at my photos:

http://www.robert.to/reviews/sampod.html

[Allan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

for those of you that don't know, samsung makes a lot of the internals in all sorts of electronics... from flash memory to hard disks (and their hard drives have improved immensely over the years, laptop drives included!)

also, samsung makes a ton of awesome phones that never reach north america, or have to be imported and super expensive and limited to only gsm... as with other reviews on this site should illustrate... they do make phones that play mp3s (they have for so long) ... there's even a commercial i saw on tv (korean) with a girl in a cafeteria wearing a bluetooth stereo headset listening to mp3s from her phone... they also have 7+ MP digital cameras in phones...

so look at the big picture of convergence... whatever plans they have, it won't be simple a device that only plays mp3s... all sorts of products will be able to play mp3s (whether or not we end up playing music with it)

[hankook @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

MGL is just a big dumbass. That's the reason you have we have to force our childeren to go to school. Yepp NEU ? are you kiddin? The USB trouble is becuz of ur titty fu-c-*king computer. Sound quality sucks? Yea becuz you bought that player 2002. Samsung's Mp3 player was the worst through 2000~2002. and at 2003 they started to rock. T-5 was the smallest mp3 player in the world T-7 was the smallest mp3 player with color lcd and picture viewer. T-8 which came out like several month ago is like the best. It has USB-Host which lets you download photos from Digital camera directly. DNSE sound is almost same quality as BOSE. You can watch movie. THey also include in their website this free software which lets you compress 700mb into aprroximately 170megs(IT's for movies that has MPEG 4 format) with the same clarity, frame per sec. You can watch movie with wide screen. They give you neckstrap. They give you cover. THey give you better earphone than the f.Kn ipod. Also you can view photos, play games, FM RADIo, Voice Rec , and more. Now, does Ipod have all those shyt? ipod=good price, capacity, simple and easy navigation. Samsung's T-8 has so many more function. The freaken ipod's battery is just buttf.Kn.....XXX
i replaced the batteries 2 times which cost me 160 bucks..80 bucks each time. The XX ipod doesn't include FM radio or the carrying case and if you want to buy it seperately they cost you A lot i mean it's rediculous. DOcking station is over 100 bucks...
over like 3 years samsung got so much better like they did on everything. WHen samsung first made semi conductors americans were like "they make semic conductors too? ROFL!!"
look at them now, they have the 16 GB nano flash which is world's greatest. Their LCD monitors are just awesome. And Samsung beat Sony in 2003 lot of ppl don't know that. You got to know how the world has changed. It's still not the days of ppl listening to the old Walkman. Samsung i believe ..not sure but they're group was made like 15 years ago..they caught up just so fast. Sony i believe it was made like 40 years ago i guess? But sony and samsung went diff ways..sony more to entertainment and games. Samsung more close to semi conductors and Electronics.