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Iriver

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The correct title of this article is iriver. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
Current iriver logo

iriver (formerly iRiver) Co., Ltd. makes portable digital audio players. They typically include USB mass storage, or the Media Transfer Protocol, multiple codecs, FM tuners, recording capabilities, and upgradeable firmware.

The Clix, a flash based player with up to 4GB (US only) and 2GB(GiB) of built-in capacity, is currently iriver's flagship product; it weighs 2.5 ounces, boasts a 2.2-inch screen and can play music, video and games.[1] Microsoft helped develop, test and market this player and specified upgrades to its chips and graphics engine.[2]

Headquartered in Seoul, iriver is the consumer electronics marketing arm of ReignCom, a company founded in 1999 by seven former Samsung executives.[3] ReignCom announced in May, 2006 that it would adjust its focus toward handheld mobile gaming.[4] It has also reported sluggish sales for its music player business[5], including a loss of 35.58 billion won (US$36.68 million) in 2005, compared with a net profit of 43.46 billion won in 2004.<ref>MP3 player maker ReignCom swings to loss in 2005. Yonhap, February 28, 2006</ref> ReignCom also owns the Korean-language Yurion and Funcake entertainment services.

Contents

[edit] Company Profile

Image:Old river logo2.jpg

In 1999, Duk-Jun Yang and Rae Hwan Lee left Samsung Electronics, along with five colleagues. They formed ReignCom, with Yang as CEO, originally as a semiconductor distributor, then decided to capitalize on the growing MP3 player market. They decided to outsource manufacturing to AV Chaseway, located in Shenzhen, China, and contract product design to INNO Design, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, CA, while keeping R&D in-house.[6]

Their first iriver product was the iMP-100, a portable CD player capable of decoding MP3 data files on CDs, released in November, 2000. It and a later model, the iMP-250, were rebranded and sold by SonicBlue in the United States under the Rio Volt name. Iriver sold later models with its own SlimX brand, billing them as the thinnest MP3 CD players in the world,[7] before jumping to other types of players. The company rose to the No. 1 position in the global market, before being displaced by the iPod's introduction.<ref>'Innovation became part of our lifestyle' THE KOREA HERALD September 15, 2005,</ref>

In 2002, iriver scrambled to develop its first flash memory player to meet demand from the U.S. Best Buy chain. A year later, it was first to market with 512MB and 1GB players[8] and completed its IPO at KOSDAQ, a Korean stock exchange[9]. By this time, the company was also selling hard drive players to compete with the iPod. It also used adult film star Jenna Jameson[10] and an Audrey Hepburn lookalike[11] as spokesmodels promoting its products.

iriver adopted a new marketing strategy in 2005, attempting to grab mindshare from Apple. It referred to the U10 flash player as the thumb thing. This referred to users controlling their MP3 devices with their thumbs, just as they do their cell phones and text messaging devices.<ref>"ReignCom Unveils MP3 Players." Korea Times, June 21, 2005.</ref>

iriver's U.S. unit, based in Vancouver, WA, held 3.4 percent of the U.S. MP3 player market in 2005, according to IDC. The company targets early adopters among American users as it tries to regain dominance of the category. [12] It also opened sales divisions in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.

In its South Korean home market, iriver accounts for 50 percent of sales [13] and the company has bought ads claiming its products are a symbol of patriotism [14]. It also operates a small chain of iriver Zone stores, with locations in China, Japan and Korea. The Incheon International Airport shop features a large heart-shaped art piece, which represents the corporate "Heartbeat Philosophy" of "dedication to its customers."[15]

[edit] Products

iriver's current products can play MP3, WMA, and WAV audio files. Some units can also play Ogg Vorbis audio files, though some newer units do not have this feature. Some units support viewing of text, Macromedia Flash, or BMP files. The company also supports Microsoft PlaysForSure, which allows recent products to support subscription-based music download services, including URGE, Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited.[16] It also lets users disable its DRM functionality.[17]

Many players supports multilingual display in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. They support Winamp playlists and allow repeat, shuffle play, and programmable functions. Several preset and one user-defined EQ settings are included, plus a built-in FM tuner.[18]

Most iriver players include a unique feature called study mode. Users can quickly jump back and forth within tracks by a certain time interval, set from three to 180 seconds in current models[19]. The option was designed to help people listening to recorded language lessons[20]. SonicBlue removed this feature from its Rio Volt models, causing some users to hack their players with iriver firmware from other regions.[21]

[edit] Portable Music Players

iriver H340

iriver's range, based on the September 2005 product list, is as follows. In the case of hard disk and flash memory-based players, the amount of storage built in is given in brackets. Some models have been discontinued from production and retail:

Models in the H300 (320 and 340) series are able to play MP3, WMV, Ogg, WAV and AVI video files (last two only with firmware upgrades) and are capable of displaying JPEG and BMP image files (which do not utilize the full screen dimensions unless converted to the appropriate dimensions/resolution).

[edit] Hard disk based players

  • E10 (6GB) (2006) It comes in white and black. It uses a similar interface to that of the U10 series. The device also features a remote control for the U10's cradle and a TV.
  • H10: (5 GB, 6 GB, 20 GB—except Asia) (2005), available in 4 different colors (red, blue, silver and grey), 16-bit color screen, can record from Radio, Internal Microphone (Voice) or Line-In (Line in only with cradle, sold extra). The device is around the size of the iPod mini and is composed mainly of aluminum. The navigation is done with a touchpad designed by iriver. These devices cannot play Ogg Vorbis files.
  • H300 series (2004), similar to the H100 series, but capable of transferring pictures directly from digital cameras and UMS-compatible devices such as flash drives, as well as showing digital images and XviD movies at 10FPS on a color screen (Video support is not available on US players with US firmware). The H300 also lacks the optical in/outputs that were on the H100's. Models: H320 (20 GB) and H340 (40 GB). It has recently been discontinued in favor of the newer and notably less feature-packed H10 series.
  • H100 (previously branded "iHP-") (2003): H110 (10 GB), 115 (15 GB), 120 (20 GB), and 140 (40 GB). It has been discontinued for all territories.

[edit] Flash memory based players

Image:IRiver H10.jpg

  • T10 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2GB) (2005). Semi-prism shaped.
  • T20 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) (2005). USB-Stick design.
  • T30 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2GB) 2005. Prism shaped, the first iriver MP3 player that uses AAA battery.
  • H10jr.: (512 MB, 1 GB) (2005). Smaller but same shape as H10. Uses Flash memory instead of Harddisk
  • N10 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "medallion-style" — worn hanging from the neck.
  • N11 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "medallion-style" — worn hanging from the neck. Features longer battery life than N10.
  • S10: (2 GB). Very small player, only 17.5g. Uses D-click control system like U10 and Clix.
  • iFP-1000 series: (256 MB) and 1095 (512 MB). Both with digital camera built-in; prism shaped.
  • iFP-900 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). With color screen.
  • iFP-800 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). Prism Shaped with rounded edges.
  • iFP-700 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB).
  • iFP-100T series: 195TC (512 MB), 190TC (256 MB), 180T (128 MB), 140(64 MB), 120 (32 MB). Prism shaped.

European customers should be aware that several models are missing the FM Radio functionality available in other world markets.

Iriver's initially dropped UMS support for the U10, T30, T20 & T10 models in favor of Microsoft's MTP. The company later released an official iriver Firmware Updater that allows users to switch between the MTP and UMS interfaces (for some models except 256MB and 2GB ones).

Although the T10 2GB version distributed in the US and Canada does not officially support such firmware, the European version does. There is currently ongoing discussion on the misticriver forums to port this firmware for use on the US version.

[edit] Portable media players

iriver has also developed four models for the portable multimedia player (i.e. audio and video) market, capable of playing several digital video formats in addition to playing audio and displaying still images, with two models:

  • G10 which is currently being developed will play digital music, video and games. A Wi-Fi connection could possibly allow streaming of music and video from a Digital Download Service to the device. The G10 will be available with hard drive capacities of 4 or 8GB while being less than half the physical size of Sony's PSP
  • iRiver Clix (2 GB, 4 GB flash) 2006 Rebranded U10 with upgraded parts and interface for WMP11, in US, Australia and Europe only.
  • U10 (512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB flash) 2005
  • PMC-120/140 (20/40 GB) ("Portable Media Center") 2004, running Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center.
  • PMP-120/140 (20/40 GB) ("Portable Media Player"), discontinued in favor of more expensive and less feature rich PMC-1x0 series.

The U10 and Clix can also play Flash Lite 1.1 games in the .swf format.

[edit] Discontinued Players

  • iGP-100 (1.5 GB)
  • iFP-300T series: 395T (512 MB), 390T (256 MB), 380T (128 MB), 340 (64 MB, US only). Candy bar shaped.
  • iFP-500T series: 599T (1 GB) 595T (512 MB) 590T (256 MB). Soap bar shaped.
  • iFP-900T series: 999T (1 GB) 995T (512 MB) 990T (256 MB)?. Soap bar shaped. Color 1.2" LCdisplay, microphone, line in and FM recording, usbhost usb 1.1, charge with usb - firmware updatable.
  • iMP-1000 (DivX video playback with TV-out)
  • "SlimX" sub-series: iMP-550, 450, 400, 350
  • iMP-700T ("Sports" model), 250, 125, 100, 50
  • iHP-100 series: iHP-115, iHP-120 and iHP-140 (15, 20 and 40GB respectively)
  • H300 series: H320 and H340 (20 and 40GB models)
  • iDP-100 series: (a 500 MB DataPlay media-based player).
  • PMP-120/140 (20/40 GB) ("Portable Media Player")

Some of the iMP-Series were known as the C-Series in Korea.

[edit] Korea-only electronic dictionary player

  • D-10 (Dicple, which is a simplified character of dictionary & (mp3) player) This is an Electronic Dictionary featuring music playback. It is selling after 2004 Dec.
  • D-20 (Dicple α) This is also an Electronic Dictionary. Featuring an improved elegant design and a 4.3, 260000, TFT color screen supporting pictures and other features that a typical electronic dictionary does not. It is designed to mimic the look of a laptop at 176(W) x 81.9(D) x 26.7(H) mm and comes in glossy red or black. The device has a 22 hour battery life for browsing the dictionary and a 30 hour battery life for audio. It is selling after 2006 Jan.
  • D-25 (Dicple 51) This Electronic Dictionary features 4.3, 260,000, TFT color screen, 1.3gb flash memory. This device is also known as Dicple 51 due to its number of contents. It is selling after 2006 Aug.

[edit] Alternative firmware

The Rockbox-Project who wrote new GPLed firmware for some Archos-players have successfully ported the rockbox firmware to the H10, H100, and H300 series.

An official iriver Firmware Updater allows users of U10, T30, T20 & T10 models to switch between UMS and MTP operation.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Official iriver

[edit] Other links

fr:IRiver id:IRiver it:Iriver nl:Iriver ja:アイリバー pl:Iriver ru:Iriver fi:Iriver sv:Iriver ko:아이리버

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Iriver"
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