All hard drive units being discontinued!

[guesswho21117]

I have heard that iriver has discontinued all hard drive players. That's why the accessories for the H10 are becoming sparse on the estore site.

[colo]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's true. With all the flash players being released in the last couple of months...
Iriver will regret this step.

[caramelsoul]

And where did you hear this rumour...care to back it up?

[threeeyes]

*yawns*

big deal, I say. let them dig their own grave. with Rockbox for my H10 I hope to get at least another year out of my player, and maybe by that time we'll see flash memory players exceeding the 10G mark.

[guesswho21117]

I called iriver's corp number and their PR said the H10s are no longer being made.

[caramelsoul]

Thats not the only HD player they make....E10. They may also be working on another HD player if unfounded rumours are true. I take it the PR didnt say "we no longer manufacture hard drive based players".

[monkeyball]

Well it isn't too surprising. Most companies (other than apple) have discontinued their hard drive players because they simply cannot stand up to the ipod.

Creative released their supposed final hard drive player some time earlier this year in the form of the Zen Vision: M

[jeff]

The issue with hard drives is this:

They experience a GREAT many failures which in turn cost companies LOTS of dollars in returns/repairs.

Apple can continue because they are so huge now that they simply absorb the costs. I wouldn't be too surprised if you see Apple abandon their hard drive offerings by 2009 or when 32GB or larger SSD or NAND becomes available for mass market.

[Step666]

Originally Posted by threeeyes

another year... . . ...maybe by that time we'll see flash memory players exceeding the 10G mark.

Spooky
And on Halloween too

[snapper007]

It's not a surprice fo me either

[VipFREAK]

high capacity flash is where it's headed. I wouldn't be surprised if apple didn't "quietly" do the same.

[Richos]

if i do recall correctly, the largest flash based iRiver is 8GB right? (iRiver Clix2 Red Line)

however, i should mention that companies like Cowon have got 16GB flash drive based MP3 players as well...

[Step666]

There's at least one up-coming iRiver player that's 16GB plus it has a MicroSD card slot too.

[mixin]

It's just a shame that iriver has their 16Gb device as "Coming Soon" when there's already a couple of companies with 32Gb devices

[sweetspot]

Originally Posted by guesswho21117

I have heard that iriver has discontinued all hard drive players. That's why the accessories for the H10 are becoming sparse on the estore site.

I wouldn't say all. The new iTank thingy is straight up HD through and through... Or is it vaporware ?

Either way, it doesn't really matter. As stated before, SSD's will assume the position of modern HD's in a few year's time and pricing will be adjusted accordingly. It's a good thing actually. More stability, durability and slimmer form factors. All good.

But I doubt we'll see anything from iRiver anytime in the immediate future with the larger SSD's. Unless Jeff would like to prove me wrong.

[Step666]

Originally Posted by mixin

It's just a shame that iriver has their 16Gb device as "Coming Soon" when there's already a couple of companies with 32Gb devices

A shame? Yes.
Unexpected? No.