Creative Technology Gets Us Patent For Key MP3 Player Interface

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The Singapore company applied for the Zen patent in January 2001 and received the nod from US authorities this month, while Apple's patent application, also for a user interface in an MP3 player, was filed in 2002.

Singapore (AFP) Aug 31, 2005
Creative Technology has secured a US patent for a key interface used in portable MP3 players including arch rival Apple's iPod, the Singapore digital entertainment products maker said Wednesday.

Local media said the US patent would give the Singaporean outfit a boost in its efforts to challenge Apple in the booming MP3 market, where it has been struggling to overtake the iPod, an icon of modern consumer technology.

Singapore's Today newspaper said the US patent may enable Creative to collect millions of dollars in royalties from Apple for the patented technology, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

In a statement, Creative chairman and chief executive Sim Wong Hoo said that "we developed a way for a user to efficiently and intuitively navigate and select tracks from a significant number of tracks stored on a player."

"Before this invention, there was no intuitive and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could be stored on a high capacity player," he said.

It has been an uphill struggle for Creative in its attempt to dislodge Apple as the number one MP3 brand in the world, with the US firm accounting for more than half of all such players sold.

Creative went into the red for the first time in three years with a 31.9 million US dollar loss in the fourth quarter to June, compared with profits of 6.63 million dollars a year ago

Technology and branding analysts believe that despite sometimes superior features on its gadgets, Creative loses out to Apple in the "coolness" category because of the American brand's fashionable reputation.

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