Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo softens up?
Not sure whether he's just decided to fight a more sensitive war on Apple or not, but just a few days after dogging the iPod shuffle for being "worse than the cheapest Chinese player," Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo is now talking up how "Apple's entry into the flash [player] market will create more awareness in the flash market segment," and how Creative is, "well positioned to become a big beneficiary of this expanding market." Not that the two statements contradict each other (it's possible to think poorly of the iPod shuffle and think it'll create market awareness), but for a company that's supposedly at war, Creative hasn't been drawing much blood lately. According to their recent financial results, Creative sold a million fewer MP3 players in the fourth quarter of 2004 than Mr. Sim had promised they would back in November, also failing in his goal of outselling the iPod (Apple sold about 4.5 million iPods in the last three months of last year, while Creative sold only two million during that same period).
UPDATE: A few people have commented that even selling 2 million players is still mighty impressive in its own right, and we'll agree with them on that.
