X-Fi, Sound Blaster, ZEN MP3 players, Speakers, Headphones, Webcams, Vado Pocket Video Cams, inPerson Video Conferencing, ZiiO Tablets, Wireless Bluetooth Speakers
Just in time for CES 2012, ZiiLABS has unveiled its latest 100-core ZMS-40 StemCell Media processor. The ZMS-40 has 96 of ZiiLABS' StemCell media processing cores (twice of the ZMS-20) with four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPUs to deliver stunning multi-tasking application and media processing performance. It promises double the performance while reducing the power consumption by half.
ZiiLABS plan to showcase the ZMS-40 capabilities on the Jaguar3 Android tablet platform and is largely targeted at the Chinese market. In its press release, Sim had revealed that the company will be forming a Chinese Tablet Alliance with several "major Chinese partners" which will be unveiled soon.
It has been years since Mr. Sim Wong Hoo appeared at any of Creative's press event. But at the recent ZiiLABS' Jaguar3 closed doors press event in Singapore, Sim appeared with a clear message: "I'm here today because I want to tell our shareholders and to lift the morale of our employees that we are leading in the game."
The message couldn't have come at a better time. Creative's stock had fallen to an all time low of $2.4 a few months ago and was recently put on the watch list of the Singapore Exchange for having 3 consecutive years of pre-tax losses. The company has been struggling to stay in the black from quarter to quarter. The demand for Sound Blaster products have been decreasing as people are switching to on-board audio, its portable media players are under intense competition against the Apple's iPod while adoption for the company's wireless speakers are not picking up as fast as one would wish for.
The shining beacon of hope for Creative, is the company's subsidiary ZiiLABS' Android reference tablet codenamed the Jagaur3 . Boasting one of the world's thinnest reference tablet design (that is if your remove all the frills), the Jagaur3 is powered by the ZiiLABS' ZMS-20 stemcell processor and has a 10.1' capacitive touchscreen and Android 3.2. OEM customers can also choose to upgrade the chip to a more powerful ZMS-40 quad-core processor simply by swapping the chip into the "granddaughter board". The most basic tablet could just cost U$100 to make.
Shedding more light on ZiiLABS' strategy, Sim revealed that the company has about 100 patents which was developed with the Jaguar3. Furthermore, Creative is now one of Google's approved vendor and has access to the source code to Android 3.2 OS - something which they did not have when developing the ZiiO. "We know how the technology works, we can build future iterations of Android very quickly now," Sim said.
Sim believes that "The gold mine is coming. We're nearly there," and he does have a valid reason for such optimism. The tablet market is growing at an unprecedented rate and there is certainly a market for low-end, high quality tablets as seen from the recent TouchPad $99 fire sale. If ZiiLABS can produce a worthy Android 3.x tablet at a sub-$200 price point, it certainly has a winner on hand.
Most tablets in the market now are priced ridiculously close to the Apple's iPad and have little differentiating factor. To put it simply, when you place all the Android tablets together, you can hardly tell one from the other. Instead of going head-on with the iPad, ZiiLABS' strategy of empowering companies to produce tablets at at least a third of the price could be its winning formula. Also, Sim's vision of transforming the landscape of education (at least in China) by digitizing textbook into an Android-friendly format onto an affordable tablet (or a highly subsidized one by the government) could give it a foothold in the tablet market. But admittedly, Creative faces a long, uphill battle to say the least.
In a market dominated by major players like Intel, AMD and Nvidia, ZiiLABS is relatively unheard of. Also, with the lack of an actual, successful shipping product, companies are understandably wary of the company's capability. Sim also did specifically mention that the Jaguar3 is "real" and "it's working", probably referring to the company's previous unsuccessful product - the ZiiEGG.
While I feel that it's good that ZiiLABS is focus on the OEM market instead of taking the big boys head-on, Creative as the parent company should lead by example and produce the company's first ZMS-20 powered Android 3.x tablet. To put it in Sim's own words, the "tablet market is pure ruthless in every sense", where even "a fast-track 6-month design cycle can still be lethal". Therefore, it would make sense of the company to produce a worthy and affordable Android tablet while the ZMS-20 is still considered an advanced processor than to wait for companies to adopt the platform.
Below are some of the demo videos of the Jaguar3 platform, honestly it does look promising.
In a move that surprised many, Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative placed a full page advertisement in Singapore's top selling newspaper as a tribute to Apple's ex-CEO Steve Jobs.
The ad which cost about U$14,000 was described by a Creative spokesman as "simply a tribute to Steve Jobs from Mr Sim personally". The ad reads: 'Thank you for the great lessons. Thank you for the great products. Thank you for bringing a bit of us to the whole world.'
Reactions to the ad were mixed though most were positive. Most felt that it was a "gentlemen" and "classy" move on Sim's part for his personal tribute to Steve, while others question if the line "bringing a bit of us to the world" is a reminder to all of Creative's ZEN Patent victory against Apple. Whichever is the case, Creative seems to be the winner at the end of the day with the intense media converge (there was a half page coverage of the ad in the papers today which you can read about it here) with many others on Twitter and Forums discussing this ad.
Dave Bullard, editor-in-chief of Macworld Australia, believes that Sim’s decision to take out the ad in memory of Jobs was done with honourable intentions. “After the legal action of 2006, Creative took an ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ attitude and started working with Apple in the Made for iPod program, and has made some excellent peripherals for Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads over the years,” he was quoted saying in Marketing Magazine Australia interview. Cnet Asia also described the ad as a "creative and tasteful move by Sim".
What are your thoughts on this ad? Do share with us your views in the comments section.
Weeks after announcing its two new chip set - the ZMS-20 and ZMS-40, ZiiLABS isn't showing any signs of slowing down as it showcase its JAGUAR Reference Platform for the 7" and 10" tablets.
To put it simply, ZiiLABS have created a range of 7" and 10" tablets running on the Android 3.1 OS and powered by the ZMS-20 or ZMS-40. OEM companies could modify certain components or design of the tablet and bring them to market quickly. As we all know that ZiiLABS' major customer is Creative, it could mean that we could see the next generation of ZiiO tablets by Christmas.
Below are some of the standard features of the JAGUAR tablets: * Powered by ZiiLABS ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 * Designed for Android 3.0+ and above * Capacitive and Resistive LCD touch options * 5MP rear and HD front facing camera as standard * Wi-Fi b/g/n, 3G/4G/WiMax and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR * GPS, accelerometer, digital compass and gyroscope * Stereo speakers and dual Microphone array * Up to 64GB internal storage * USB 2.0 port * SDHC Card sl
Some of the tablet design that ZiiLABS have produced:
JAGUAR reference tablets based on the ZMS-20 will be shown in the ZiiLABS suite (Grand Hyatt Hotel Taipei, Grand Room, #1137) at the Computex 2011 tradeshow in Taipei, Taiwan between 31 May and 4 June.
It has been 2 years since ZiiLABS announced its last media processor - the ZMS-08. The media-rich applications processor is now seen powering the Creative's ZiiO range of tablets. While we have yet to see the 1080p video playback or 720p video conferencing on these devices, we did see the ZiiO rendering decent 3D games and also 720p HDMI output.
Today, ZiiLABS (also known as the chip-making arm of Creative) announces 2 new processors targeting at the rapidly growing tablet market. The ZMS-20 is a dual-core (think 2 brains on a chip) 1.5GHz Cortex A9 processor which the company says is 4 times faster than the ZMS-08. The ZMS-40 on the other hand is a quad-core (now think 4 brains) processor which is able to deliver a clock speed of up to 6GHz. This all sounds amazing to us. What it simply means is that the ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 are micro-size media-powerhouse processors optimized for Android 3.0 high-definition tablets.
Along with the chips, ZiiLABS will provide a comprehensive Android Tablet Platform consisting of the ZMS-20 SDK for Android, customize or white label ID tablet designs and also certification and conformation.
To compliment its wireless speakers and MP3 players, Creative released not 1, not 2 but 3 new wireless headsets. These new WP-series headset not only allow you to listen to your music wirelessly via Bluetooth, it also allows you to receive and answer phone calls on your mobile phones and PC.
WP-250
Active Lifestyle High Quality Wireless Music Listening and Voice Communication
Streams high quality music with clear voice calls from all compatible mobile phones and Bluetooth devices
In-Ear and behind-the-neck design for secure fit during active usage
Creative has updated its ZEN line of MP3 player with the low-end ZEN Style M300. The Bluetooth equipped MP3 player comes in 4 different colors (Black, White, Yellow and Red) and 3 capacities (4, 8 and 16GB). In terms of size, this is one of the smallest full feature player from Creative. It packs the usual bell and whistles you would expect from a Creative player: FM Radio, Photos, Videos and microSD expansion slot. The included Bluetooth feature of the player also allow you to wireless stream music to Creative's range of wireless speakers and headphones. In terms of pricing, the Style M300 is also about S$20 cheaper than the ZEN Style series. Also available is the ZEN style M100 (no Bluetooth, FM Radio). Creative says both players will be on sale in the middle of June.
