While the hype is bubbling over surrounding Creative's Zii "
stemcell computing," the outfit obviously doesn't think whatever it is will turn things around. Instead, it has chosen to cut some 2,700 jobs -- nearly half of its workforce -- as "demand for its music players tumbled." According to a report filed to Singapore's stock exchange on December 31, 2008, the company had 3,100 full time employees at the end of June 2008, which is around 47% lower than what was posted a year prior. 'Course, we suppose the cuts aren't all that surprising after posting a net loss of $19.7 million on the lowest revenues in five years, but it still makes us wonder just how confident the company is about this whole
Zii dealio.
[Thanks, Grayson]
posted Jan 4th 2009 3:35AM
first
FAIL!
He didn't actually fail though, he really was first...
You still are a Looser !
And you're a loser!
Bah and meh and other 3 lettered internet expressions I don't know the exact definition of.
I cant say im surprised.
Creative has lost their way, and to be honest, were never really that great to begin with.
They havent produced a decent player in years, and newcomers like Sandisk are already filling the holes left by Creative.
Hopefully this will help Creative get back on the right track.
At least they could go down with a bang... ZEN Vision:M-2 anyone? Seriously.
Sandisk doesn't make pc audio components.
And Creative lost their way when they started doing anything but just that.
I'm still waiting for a true successor to my Zen Vision: M, although a flash version of the Vision or Vision: W would also be nice
I'm not sure about that.. If they would have never plunged into the music player realm, they probably wouldn't have even made it this far. Their sound cards are already totally redundant for 99% of computer users. They should be looking to sell their technology and name to a mobo maker before the company loses ALL it's value and any cache they might have.
@Cash
Strongly agree, you won't find me buying another Creative sound card after my X-Fi's Vista drivers were a load of crap...
Hopefully some of the people laid off were the ones who have been writing the creative sound card drivers for the last 15 years. D:
agreed
Exactly!
When I first read the headline, first thing I thought was CRAP, now it will take even longer for them to fix the drivers for my X-Fi sound card. Who knows, maybe they fired the people screwing it up now.
Actually Michael, I'm being promoted.
Message from creative" Its the Zi end of your jobs!"
"Quick, before zii Germans get here"
Wow. Fail.
It's "Zi" end of your jobs..
The Zii is probably their big chance to get back in on the market (should it perform as they describe it). Even if it doesn't, that's what all this prime advertising action goes into. So Creative, how will this Zii turn out when the chips are down?
After their driver fiasco I have a very difficult time feeling the least bit sorry for Creative. I'd be happy to see them leave the market.
I'm ashamed to say I own a Creative sound card after the Daniel_K incident. Honestly, that's forever marks the day they lost my business directly. Thankfully Auzentech was able to pick up the X-Fi chipset.
It's funny, I chose not to install DanielK's driver but instead yanked the Soundblaster Audigy 2 out of my PC about a week before the DanielK fiasco. Vista Service Pack 1 wouldn't install until I did.
How pathetic is it when Microsoft codes a hard block on the installation of a long-awaited service pack if it detects a driver that has a known bug that will cause problems for the service pack? How pathetic is it when the company that makes the driver had not updated the driver for more than a year?
I swore off Creative products that day. I got a USB audio adapter for $20 and it works fine.
Apparently the executive team didn't get the memo from marketing that "Zii" is going to "change everything" and "better lives beyond our imagination".. Creative is saved!
On a serious note, How in the heck did these guys have ~5,000 employees? What do they even sell anymore and who buys it? All I know Creative for is their discount MP3 players and Gamer sound cards... Does anyone even buy their pro audio equipment?
I actually like Creative, its just not lately, There players is what I love the most but there letting me down after the Zen V Plus. (Thats what i own) The Zen Vision M was probably the best player they ever had goin for them, and they said there not making anymore HD players, so that sucks, so therefor I won't be buying them anymore. I'll go with Archos, I already have my mind on that 5. Thou Creative sound cards look nice. but i dont know how does there X-Fi sound like.
I'm surprised the marketing guys haven't worked Creative into changing their logo. It looked dated 10 years ago, but now it's getting pretty long in the tooth. Sort of unrelated to all this, but worth mentioning.
As far as their portable audio goes, the smaller more nimble competitors (iRiver, Sandisk, Cowon) are one-upping them on codec support, that's for sure.
The logo is exactly like the Layers Magazine logo (Adobe how-to magazine), check it out http://www.layersmagazine.com. Not very 'Creative' if you ask me.
I can't help but think they're a bit of a sell-out company. They have totally lost their way and now just brand all their tat with Fatal1ty logos.
A few years ago I'd have said Creative were on a roll. They had the Zen Vision:M, they used to make excellent soundcards rather than just churning out the same one under about 10 different names.
X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series anyone? Oh how about the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, or the X-Fi Elite Pro? Or the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series Ultimate Gaming Audio? Or how about the X-Fi Platinum? Or possibly the X-FI Fatal1ty? There's even an X-Fi Titanium or X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Audio to choose from...
But wait there's more! We also have the X-Fi ExtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series! Or the X-Fi XtremeGamer!
Urgh my head hurts.
If I were in charge I'd give the marketing department boss such a hard kick up the arse that my shoe would come out of his mouth like a little leathery tongue.
I like my Asus soundcard. :)
It's a shame really, as the hardware they produce (most of it) is actually really good. It's just that the company as a whole is a big pile of sticky man juice.
I dated a girl for a couple of weeks who was so far removed from the economic climate she thought the credit crunch was a type of cereal.
You couldn't make this up.
They Don't need any workers.. Speakers and Sound cards they 'll just grow on trees from now on.
Lol at "recession proof".
"but it still makes us wonder just how confident the company is about this whole Zii dealio."
So that's how it "lowers expectations for Zii", given there's no mention of Zii in the linked article?
Just to clarify, if I wonder whether Engadget should fire you, then it becomes "Engadget inclined to fire bad journalist"?
Wow, just wow.
Oh, well. They don't make iPods, so what does it really matter. Apple can stand to gain a little more market share if Creative sells fewer media players. Creative has been around for such a long time and they still make sound cards and other devices, so they'll probably continue to stay in business and make a come-back when the economy settles back to normal.
Apple already owns the media player market and will continue to do so for years. The niche area is getting smaller and smaller for the remaining companies, so it will be tougher for them to remain profitable.
Be a winner, carry an iPod.
"Be a winner, carry an iPod"?
My Zune says otherwise...
For anyone that actually believes Creative's products are good/great need to actually try out one of there products such as there MP3 players. Most people that have, including critics, reviewers, etc have long praised Creative's MP3 players and are on par if not better then Apple's Ipod. Instead of just going along with the pack people should try the alternatives. Creative has been making the MP3 players for several years before Apple even started and there was even a lawsuit over Apple using the menu system and way a user accesses the music on the player.
Also there sound cards have been around for a long time and are known for there quality. There newest MP3 player the Zen X-FI has many features that the Ipod doesn't. The main problem is Creative doesn't advertise except for magazines. They need to kick there PR department into high gear and start a major campaign showing people that Apple isn't the only one and that Creative's products are superior in many ways. For some reason they haven't done much in terms of informing people about all there products.
Most of the other companies that make MP3 players put out substandard products that aren't worth the money. Anybody that has tried/bought a Creative MP3 player will tell you what a great product it is and has been for years now.
But following a pack is so much easier though.
Isn't that where iClone came from?
On the other hand, I think streamlining the organization in a new direction by slashing jobs that are not beneficial
to the new direction is beneficial.
And according to what they're putting forth, it's so revolutionary, that they need a different workforce.
just my 2 cents.
DeathSkull - I would partially agree with you. Usually Creative makes some good quality hardware. Most of the sound cards, MP3 players and so on are actually pretty good stuff at the hardware level. However, they've always managed to shoot themselves in the foot in some way, especially recently, and especially with software.
Their MP3/Media players have, especially in recent years, suffered from stupid flaws in the software/design that are a real pain in the ass to the customer. Take the last generation of zen players - they have an SD card slot to expand the capacity of the player. Cool idea, badly done, because to play anything contained on the card, you had to navigate using a clunky file browser, not the standard interface, and you couldn't queue tracks to play back or anything, you'd have to open them one by one (AFAIK), etc. The new Zen X-FI has EXACTLY the same problem, and despite huge threads on Creative's forums about it, they show no sign of ever trying to fix it. Plenty of other manufacturers do it without issue, so it's not like its a technical impossibility. And lets not forget the sound card driver debacles - firstly when vista came out, the absolutely terrible quality of the drivers, and then the whole Daniel_k thing, where he was enabling software-disabled features, and fixing bugs in Creative's drivers in the process.
Recently, I was disappointed with the new Zen X-Fi, why would I want or need IM on my MP3 player? Especially when it requires input through that horrible keypad. Lame. I continue to soldier on with my ancient Sony NW-HD3.
The only Creative product I own is an "extreme audio notebook" for my laptop, and I feel it was a complete waste of money. When I first got it, the drivers where trash - the audio would crackle and pop on occasion, closing down media player or similar when a track was playing would cause the audio to have a seizure for several seconds before it would actually stop, there was noticeable latency between sounds occuring and actually being played back, some programs caused the audio to go tinny for some reason, which could only be fixed by pulling the card out and putting it back in again, changing from line out to laptop speakers was really hit and miss, etc etc. Just a constant stream of fail. These days, some of the problems have been fixed, and others lessened to an extent, but I only use it for the software equaliser for my speakers at home, which can be similarly acheived without the product at all.
I will never buy another Creative product again unless something big changes within the company. They need to completely overhaul their customer relations (their support is legendary for being crap), and start properly supporting their hardware with decent software/firmware without having it on the market for several years first. They need to rationalise what they sell, and stop producing 4 versions of the same product with minor differences (I'm thinking the zen stone with/without speakers/screen etc), and they have to actually implement the features they promise!
Jomo- Obviously no one person can defend/attest for any one companies products. I do know however that there MP3 players are better in many ways. I agree with the SD usage but the X-FI has wifi connectivity, Media Server built in, Instant messaging, etc. All of this in the size of a credit card. Critics have long praised Creative's MP3 players and as for there sound cards, they have been a staple of computer usage for the past two decades. I do agree with you that there has been problems with drivers, and support for some products. I also agree that they need to restructure and become dedicated to ironing out the little problems.
As far as this new product nobody has a definite idea of what it is and they still bash it. People just need to give it a chance before they criticize it. I can understand how a bad experience can taint what you prefer to buy in the future. I think most people need to give the company another chance the same way they give apple, hp, dell, etc. a second, third, etc chance. Just because a person doesn't use all of the features doesn't mean that they are wasted. I agree with you that they need to concentrate on a product and not the variations thereof.
they just can't make it dude.
so many years, they have not learnt any lesson.
they continue to chuck out products that lacks innovation.
they continue to produce new products that make their "months old "products ancients.
they continue to produce sub-standard products that does not even have sufficent marketting.
they still use their decade old logo .. even apple change theirs man.
Creative has been failing ever since they axed the Vision:M and subsequently over-diluted their product lineup. They can't even get proper MicroSD integration working on the ZEN...
Oh Creative... how the mighty have fallen.
This has been a company that over the years has lost focus and dilluted their name recognition. They were the first word in soundcards, but who can tell they bought up or bought out all of their major competition in the last 15 years. They've sold webcams and videocards and mp3 players without much advertising outside of the industry media. Creative has never been a company known for the highest quality product. There was always someone in the same industry who did it better . And they did nothing to fix that image. They bungled vista support for their devices in an attempt to force people to buy new replacement products to go with the upgrade. Then we find out the new stuff has sucky drivers too.. And their multimedia players are a mess. 10 different designs with varying features and quality. There are quite a few nice media players made by them ..but which ones??.. They feel that if they flood the market with a bunch of junk at some point they will achieve acceptable market share.. but its the lets not make a good one... but make a whole lot of mediocre ones and throw them on shelves mentality that got it so screwed in the first place. They need to Focus their product lines, then advertise them well, and provide great support... Three things they haven't done in a long time
this is GREAT news. creative can DIOF
*DIAF
Good riddance. I spent way too long trying to get rid of crackling and pops and high signal to noise in general on my X-Fi and Audigy 2 ZS, then I realized that I don't need surround sound and all that sound quality tech that is supposedly in Creative cards is nothing compared to a good external audio production interface. Audio Kontrol 1 sound quality in everything games included is so much better and no noise on my studio monitors at all.
since the death of aureal creatives sat on its hands with its virtual monopoly and did squat.
their passing is pretty much a good thing for the industry. moving to vista/software sound = win for users.
did they actually lose those jobs due to cuts, or was that only to cover up something more sinister?...
i'm starting to think "soylent greens computing" would be a better name for Zii...
@Sambo
That's whatcha get for mackin on the short bus
XD
Apple's $100 million didn't last them long, did they? This is what happens when bullshit lawsuits replace quality, talent and innovation. They won't be missed.
What a deep analysis. Company lays off X employees... therefore Company lowers expectations for new product Y. And stick that conclusion in the title even though neither the source nor the company said anything about the Zii. Great journalism!
I haven't bought a Creative product in years, and I haven't seen any used by friends and family. So obviously they need to make cuts to those divisions that make the current product-lines. If those jobs aren't transferable to the Zii, or it won't be produced for a while, then why in the world should they continue to pay people to make/support crappy products?
I can hear the song now...
This is Zii end
Beautiful friend
This is Zii end
My only friend, Zii end.
Can you picture what won't be
So unimaginative and costly
Desperately in need...of some...strangers money
In a...desperate land
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft Vista lies
The end of nights we flamed Daniel K
This is Zii end