Creative poised to throw down an 8GB Zen V Plus?

While Creative and Apple may have settled their legal battles, they're continuing to duke it out in the ring of portable media players. According to epiZENter's "reliable source," Creative wants to introduce a new contender with an 8GB version of its Zen V Plus, to compete with the newly-supersized 8GB iPod nano. We're all for competition in the marketplace, but Creative is going to have to move pretty fast if it wants to get its players out in time for the holiday shopping craze. Anonymous source or not, it's well within the realm of possibility that Creative would want to go toe to toe with Apple -- but of course, both Apple and Creative will have to take on the SanDisk Sansa e280 in the maxed-out flash-based DAP department.

[Via DAPReview]

[Cryovat @ Sep 25th 2006 6:36AM]

Ack, of course this beauty had to hit the market after I bought a Zen MicroPhoto. :(

[John Hinds @ Sep 25th 2006 7:09AM]

If they wanterd to beat Apple at it's own game then they should have released an 8GB version 6 months ago.

Waiting for Apple to release a product and then saying you can make somthing the same 4 months later isn't going to shift any units.

[GiGoMaN @ Sep 25th 2006 7:32AM]

Yeah, no REAL point in doing it.

1) People who would go and but the nano are essentially saying wither i am rich and wanna for out $100 (aus) extra on a worse player

2) Or they are saying, its small and cute mummy/daddy everyone else has one let me buy it

3) Unless creative are going to be competitive to the sansa which is VERY unlickely (price and Software) i doubt people will sway towards it

There would be a real heavy reliance on the fact that people will want a 'creative' player and as of late creative arent doing there greatest to keep up with the demand of there fanboys/girls

[Ally @ Sep 25th 2006 8:04AM]

I wish instead of trying copy apple to keep up with them and shift some units; they would just try and come up with something new themselfs.

This is why i have an ipod, it seems most other "big players"(no pun intended) are trying to copy or keep up with apple which to me isnt going to sell units.

We need someone to do something really innovative, instead of just increasing capacities, screen brightness etc...

[DeShaun @ Sep 25th 2006 11:48AM]

So, you're saying that too many items are trying to imitate Apple, which is why you went ahead and bought the first cookie off the cookie cutter? I don't follow. Being first isn't necessarily being best.

I don't know how much more reliable Apple players have become since they waves of repair issues I'm used to hearing, but I've personally never had an interest. There honestly is only so much you can do with flash based players without alienating too many people. It's part of why Apple manages to succeed. People who don't know what drag and drop means can still sync stuff with iTunes. People who don't know what an ogg file is, or what VBR and FLAC mean are just fine without it, since Apple likens their music acquisition to buying an album at a real store.

I agree with you that matching another company in size won't move extra units per se, but in this case, their backs are against the wall for the holiday rush. Within their time constraints, it makes more sense to just toss out a product of comparable storage size, than to develop something entirely new.

[Thiago_Brasil @ Sep 25th 2006 8:28AM]

I�m loving this "PodWar"...prices going down, storage size going up! Awsome! Can�t stand for xmas prices!

[Mike Browning @ Sep 25th 2006 11:29AM]

Funny, I just asked them this two days ago. So.. who knows the truth?
Dear Michael,

Thank you for contacting Creative Labs online customer service.

The Zen V Plus will be released with in the next couple of months, but
unfortunately, we do not have the exact date. We will not be coming out
with an 8gb version of this player either. Please let us know if we can
be of further assistance and thank you for your interest.


Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this
email.

Best Regards,

William H. (15747)
Direct Sales
Creative Labs Americas

[tekdroid @ Sep 25th 2006 12:54PM]

oh how i wish for the perfect player:

*removable batts & flash
*great sound quality
*gapless playback
*native USB Mass Storage drag-n-drop, no crappy software needed to transfer songs between computers, let alone different operating systems
*FLAC (pre-requisite) - other formats? Meh, take them or leave them.
*great display (though I'm very happy with a regular LCD that can be seen in sunlight very well. Backlight a plus, but not necessary)
*smallish size, great battery life.
*decent mW output to drive a wide range of headphones, from small to large impedance
*decent recording a real plus (that means proper a/d, inputs, etc)

IMO, there's competition, but so much room for improvement. Unfortunately it's predominantly a 'copy apple' type of market.

Ally's post hit the nail on the head, IMO.

For my money, Cowon are the only ones getting a look-in from me. And even then they are missing some things but still come pretty close. But I'm chasing FLAC and don't give a damn about video or colours, others are chasing other things.

[Jake @ Sep 25th 2006 2:55PM]

Here's my big question about this V Plus device:

Is it ever coming out?

It has been advertised and reviewed and hyped for months -- it seems like -- but you still can't buy it.


According to Mike's email above, Creative now says it's coming out "in the next couple of months, but
unfortunately, we do not have the exact date."

WTF???? This seems like a nice little player but it doesn't exactly incorporate earth shattering technology break throughs. What is taking so long and/or why was it anounced so far in advance of its availability? Does Creative really think people are going to be so awestruck by the V Plus that they're going to hold off buying a player until the V Plus finally comes out?

[jackjohnson @ Sep 26th 2006 12:53AM]

jake what are you talking about, you can buy the V Plus everywhere. I was just in wallmart and best buy and they both have them for sale and on display. You can even buy them at several places on the internet also. They have been out for quite some time.

[Dan @ Sep 25th 2006 3:48PM]

It's out now...

[Mike Browning @ Sep 25th 2006 4:08PM]

The Creative Zen V is for sale, but the Zeb V Plus is not. Amazon has it for pre-order, but that's about it.

[Mike Browning @ Sep 25th 2006 4:08PM]

Zen, not Zeb :o

[glacia00 @ Sep 25th 2006 4:14PM]

tekdroid, I agree with a lot of your perfect player must haves. One that really chaps my donkey is the lack of drag & drop.

The player can have options to can connect to as many music DL services as the maker wants as long as that DL service will get out of the way when I don't want it and let me use a storage device like a storage device.

It's the one thing I can never forgive Apple for in that they convinced the average (or below) user they need a piece of software to put files on a storage device. If the ipod becomes the last player on earth I won't buy one for this reason alone.

[Sebastian @ Sep 26th 2006 3:13AM]

The Zen V Plus is available in Norway in all sizes up to 4GB... it's readily avaiable as well.

1695,-NOK (approx 260 USD) for the 4 Giggster (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.asp?sku=323600)

Held it in my hand yesterday, it's quite nice, not "sexy", but rather usefull. The new ipod is a bit booring and conformative.

[Wardell Latham @ Sep 26th 2006 10:10AM]

I have seen the Zen V for sale but not the Zen V plus for sale. I'd defiantly get this before an ipod nano, if it comes out any time soon. The Zen V does a good job of competing with the nano on its own with features like drag and drop transfers, voice recording, and FM radio, with the addition of of an 8GB drive and video support the Zen V plus would clearly be a better choice.

[Burroughs802 @ Sep 26th 2006 10:36AM]

@tekdroid,

currently, the Sandisk Sansa is the closest flash DAP to meeting all your requirements. And once it gets rockboxed, the final issues (gapless, FLAC, OGG, etc.) will be filled...

and to Ally, Apple recently upgraded the iPod Nano on September 12th to 8GB of storage, primarily to respond to Sandisk's moves with their 6GB e270 and 8GB e280 Sansa's. Many were thinking that the Nano would also get video support, or at least a more customizable GUI, to match the Sansa, as well as the Zen V, and Clix, but that didn't come.

Apple was the first to introduce 5GB microHDD to the mp3 player market with their 1G iPod, and 4GB flash with the 1G Nano, but they were not the first to introduce higher HDD capacities (20GB, 40GB, 60GB, or 80GB), 6GB & 8GB flash (Sansa), color screens, video playback, gapless playback for audio, or the more durable aluminum cladding, and yet they have added these features and aspects to the iPod over the years. The DAP market is no different than any other competitive consumer marketplace: the principle players will forever continue to introduce new features and designs, and their competitors will forever respond, and the first parties will respond to the responses. It's like a chess game.

Using the Sandisk Sansa as an example (since it appears to be the biggest competitor to the iPod, right now), the Sansa certainly is not an iPod copy, as it has too many built-in features and design aspects that either surpasses/surpassed the Nano (the more scratch-resistant face & liquid metal back was far more durable than the 1G Nano's soft plastic/chrome backing, but now not so much in comparison with the 2G Nano's aluminum cladding), or were aspects that the Nano, or any iPod, didn't even have. Add to that the higher capacities for a lesser price, and the Sansa was not a copycat knee-jerk reaction to the Nano, but rather a serious competitor that was expected by it's creators to best the Nano. So much so, that even with the improvements of the 2G Nano, the Sansa still exceeds the Nano in many areas...

[Jeff @ Sep 26th 2006 9:47PM]

Yeah, I thought the V plus 4 gig was supposed to come out by August. They didn't make that deadline, so now their going to come out with an 8 gig. Maybe they'll get it out before Apple releases their next ipod.

Here's a crazy idea Creative. How about skipping ahead and coming out with a 10 gig.