singapore.cnet.com
Creative, which has 60 percent of the market for computer audio-enhancing devices, known as sound cards, is also shifting its focus to digital entertainment products to cut its reliance on personal computer sales as major computer makers warn of weaker sales.
In the year ahead, Creative is counting on a boost in sales from new products such as the Nomad Jukebox, an MP3 player that uses a disk drive to record and store up to 2,000 songs from the Internet. It expects $100 million in sales within a year from July, when it started shipping the product. The company started shipping to the US in September.
The Jukebox will "allow users to take entertainment beyond the confines of the PC box," McHugh said.
Sales of personal digital entertainment products, including Nomad Jukebox, digital audio players and Web cameras, increased by 400 percent over the same period last year, to US$19.5 million, making up 6.4 percent of total sales.
The US and Americas still made up Creative's biggest market, accounting for 50.5 percent of sales, from 51.2 percent a year earlier. Asia's contribution was 17.8 percent, from 22.3 percent. |
