iHP renamed to H? are you joking me?

[profingersk8er]

just saw this news and i can not believe it.
why would any company rename it's top-of-the-line product
is this change only going to apply to online model name or are they actually changing everything?

so does that mean my still-brand-new-looking iHP120's price value is going to decrease because new models have H120 printed on them instead of "iHP120" and my exact same player is now all the sudden an "old model"?

does that mean "iriver" (how do you even pronounce that now) is going replace my iHP120 with a new one that says "H120" on there?

im not happy, i was going to upgrade from my iHP-120 to an 140, but that's most likely not going to happen now.
smooth move "iriver" (irrri-ver)

[Exo]

This is madness.
As you say it could de-value current models
So all us devoted iRiver fans that parted cash with these models and helped iRiver on the way will end up with first generation models which will be lower in value when we come to sell them.

http://www.iriver.com/company/news_view.asp?idx=369

[Exo]

Oh, and they have a brand new Corporate Identity (CI)
http://www.iriver.com/company/news_view.asp?idx=370

"The new CI will appear on products starting in the latter half of 2004. "

So our current models will look even older

[Mike]

Actually, the "old" branded stuff could be worth more as the good "old" stuff ...

[profingersk8er]

that could also be ture, but being a collector of many items myself, these stuffs wont really increase value because tech is getting better and better, soon there will be 60gig or even 80gig 1.8" drive. i dont see why would anyone collect "old-tech"

even if our current iHPs do become collectable, one thing has to happen first, iriver will have to discontinue the whole iHP-1xx line before anyone would pay more then retail

[Poppy]

Maybe they changed it because of the iPod HP version that's coming this summer.

[rd]

Originally Posted by profingersk8er

i dont see why would anyone collect "old-tech"

I think old tech is cool.
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/
I'm thinking about mounting one of these things on my wall with a lineout so I can hook it to my H. Then I just plug in and KICK IT!!!


Poppy may be on to something with the HP Ipod. That would be a pretty good reason to change the name. I'm actually kind of enjoying referring to it as my "H". Sort of like my "nine".

[profingersk8er]

rd, im glad you brought that up.
this is a different story however, since you are looking for a boombox, you should already know that 1980s was electronic's golden age, many large companies including sony made some of the best products of all time during that time per.

back in 1980s, people didnt care about "100 hours battery life", "price factor" nor "size factor", people had quality on mind, both built quality and sound quality. Sony discmans back then were built like tanks, fully metal and no cheap plastic parts, insanly high headphone output and clean line-out ports. (i know this myself because i own a few in my collection). portable discmans such as Sony D-555/Z555 and D-35 were known to many to be the best discmans ever built. buth quality wise and sound quality wise. CD Walkmans today are horrible, simply becuase there's no market for high-dollor discmans. perople just dont care anymore, all they care about is how slim they are and how long the battery lasts on one full charge, large, brightly lit displays were gone, also forced companies to lower headphone outputs to such low numbers to save battery, results in not enough power to drive good headphones and finally horrible sound quality. new inventions such as anti-shock compresses audiofiles so they can fit more into their buffer ro provent skip, this also degraded sound quality. and lastly, heavy metal bodies were replaced with cheaply made plastic to keep down production cost and weight. all these togather results in POS cd walkmans we see today

THIS is the reason vintage audio gears worth soo much today, however is isnt whats happening to our iHPs

[w1cket01]

You know what, I have a bad feeling about this. I just ordered an ihp-140 and this new revamp of the corporate image sounds like they might do a redesign of the product line or worse yet not support the old products?

[profingersk8er]

no worries.
there's no way they'r going to redesign the iHP line anytime soon. iHP was just realsed not soo long ago, redsign this soon means they will loose maybe even millions of dollor. and seeing that they'r still doing firmware updates on iMP series that are over 2 or 3 years old, theres no reason for them to stop support our iHPs.

maybe i made it sound like the sun's going to burn out, it's not that big of a deal. im just pissed off because i believe renaming iHP and the new logo for iriver is just stupid.
what if some old Joe who didnt hear the news wants to upgrade his iMP-150, he might:
1. see the new logo and think it's a totally different brand and not buy it.
2. know it's an iRiver, but might think some bigger company bought iRiver so they changed the logo

i still think this whole thing's stupid, plus iriver's new logo looks like some brand that makes kitchenware

[Nick114]

it's also a kick in the b*lls for those of us that have just bought our IHP 120/140 's. And the new logo looks so much better. If everyone waited till, say September, the 'H-120' would have dropped in value because of the H-300, and they would probably be selling them off at £150. But then again, if you wait and get the H-300, there just going to bring a new model out 3 months later so yours will be branded 'old'. There is no point in upgrading, just buy an IHP-120/140 and soon as you see it, otherwise if you keep just looking at, there gonna keep bringing out more, better models making you having to wait for an extra six months and spending £100 more!!

Remember: take the plunge now!

Oh and ***k iRiver for the change!!!!!!

[seadzz]

there's no way they'r going to redesign the iHP line anytime soon. iHP was just released not so long ago, redesign this soon means they will loose maybe even millions of dollars

This is not exactly true. In a contract manufacturing enviornment where iRiver the buyer contracts out manufacturing to a third party much of the tooling costs are rolled into the price iRiver pays for each completed player they purchase. Also most of the tooling for the three units 100, 120 and 140 is the same and all players share common components (case tooling for 140 is unique). Based on my experience in comtract mfg for electronic devices (this is my job) I would estimate total investment for tooling paid by iRiver was less than $200,000 USD.

If you do the math on what it cost them to tool up and divide that by units produced that would be less than $1.00 USD per unit in tooling costs. Bottom line is they could discontinue the 100 series tomorrow and not lose a cent in tooling. They may endear themselves to customers but since when is that a concern when you have a new logo and all that comes with it.

sdz

[pomegranate]

I think one plus side of the name change is that it doesn't sound like iRiver is trying to rip off iPod anymore
iPod...iHP....when people ask what my player is called, it sound like I've got a poor mans version of the iPod, instead of something better

[Nick114]

I think one plus side of the name change is that it doesn't sound like iRiver is trying to rip off iPod anymore
iPod...iHP....when people ask what my player is called, it sound like I've got a poor mans version of the iPod, instead of something better

you're right, but when i say iRiver, everyone immediately thiinks that it is a cheap rip off from the iPod, and that the iPod is better, until i argue my case for the IHP120, where then they believe me....

[divad6719]

Mmm, "I've got an H" doesn't sound as good as "I've got an iHP"

As for iRiver re-vamping the iHP range, I don't think they will have much choice, come August/ September the iHP design will be around a year old. In the current MP3 player wars I don't think they can afford to cling onto any design for too long or it could be in danger of becoming "Old Hat".
Especially with Apple's (rumoured) policy of releasing updated generations of iPod every 9 to 10 months.

[darth_librarian]

Absolute rubbish. So every stockist is going to have to rename stock. New potential customers will be confused as to which product to buy, even though they are the same. Surely it would have been better to introduce this with the H 300 series, and leave the exisiting IHP's as they are.

Makes me glow rubine-red with anger.

[jpburton5150]

From the international site...

The rubine-red color selected to signify raw energy and limitless enjoyment also reflects the sensitivity of cultural leaders.

cultural leaders? haha would that mean the communists or something?

[HiredGun]

wow, this new logo thing is completely unbelieveable. the original definately logo looks much more flashier and "cooler".