article on ReignCom (makers of iRiver)

[Poppy]

I just found this article on how the iRiver brand started in the US. It also mentions in the last paragraph that they sold 73,000 hard drive players last year. I wonder if those are US figures.

BusinessWeek

[sweetspot]

Actually, I don't think iRiver started in the U.S. Yang Deok Joon, with his start up group ReignCom Ltd. was "making" portable CD and MP3 players for Santa Clara (Calif.)-based SonicBlue. But his actual group was in Seoul Korea.

Giant U.S. retailer Best Buy Co. (BBY ), which sold SonicBlue's Rio players, was reluctant to carry the little-known South Korean maker's gadgets without the Rio brand.

ReignCom's MP3 push marks the first time a Korean company has seized the lead in sales of a digital device from the Japanese.

The quotes that I personally find very funny, ironic and tell all are:

Best Buy agreed to take Yang's products -- but only if ReignCom could provide a player that stored music on flash-memory chips, something ReignCom had never made. The deadline: Sept. 20. Yang threw every engineer he had into the project, and by August had come up with a prototype that could hold 30 songs. "We made a huge bet," recalls Yang.

So...if the dude didnt' come up with something quick, he was sunk with BB. On top of that, he made a huge bet out of it, and grabbed whatever idiot programmers he could in order to do the job. That makes total sense..He already had the hardware resources, but the software was another issue. And thanks to the bet, we're now blessed with the crackpot programmers responsible for the IHP's shortcomings..Wheeee e ! However, overall, this hasn't seemed to affect their pockets in a negative way:

Worldwide, it sold 1.2 million last year. Revenues nearly tripled, to $193.3 million, in 2003, while profits jumped fivefold, to $36 million. Investors like the tune. Since listing in Seoul on Dec. 19, ReignCom shares have more than doubled, to $94.

Not too shabby eh ?

Why on Earth, does every idiot including STEVE JOBBS (at the CES conferences..you can see the video footage) do this??? :

Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, comes from Apple, which just introduced the iPod Mini. This $250 machine costs less than iRiver's top flash players but holds about four times as much music on its hard drive.

Freekin DUH ! My god are these people retards ! "Um yes sir...it does hold more songs than any iRIver flash player. Why you ask ? Oh..because it's got a HARD DRIVE in it. Hu ? What's the difference ? Mmmm...Not sure, but that's what they tell me."

Tards.

[seadzz]

Based on my first hand experience you can fit about 11,000 ihp sized things in a 45 ft sea shipping container.

so that would mean they sent 6 containers to the US based on the 73K number you posted.....sounds about right for N. American market...not the ROW. Seems like WW number would be more like 120, 000 units maybe 150K

sdz

[coreman]

Hard to figure that number...I agree with Seadzz that it sounds low for worldwide number...could be US with the greater percentage of sales being the -100 since it was on the market for 6months vs 2 months for the -120. I read somewhere that nearly 2KK iPods have been sold (total of all iPods not annual number) so that should mean a pretty large market potential for iRiver...if they can tap into the iPod mentality. Especially when batteries start dying and it costs $95 to get replaced...

That is something we haven't really discussed here...we all agree that the iPod isn't our "cup of tea" for design but there are many that like it. How many of those who buy iPod will not buy iRiver because of it's appearance? Those won't ever be reached by iRiver but the balance represent the potential market for iRiver, especially if they beef up their features list a bit....but I also think the "artsy" buyers are significant chunk of the Apple buyers...maybe as high as 50% - 60%..

Based on past history, I would bet that iRiver can easily move 250K HDD players this year. Average price of $400, equals a cool $100KK dollars in HDD players alone...with no place to go but up....this is definitely a company to watch!!