OT (kinda) -- Creative looks to graphics - paper
SINGAPORE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Multimedia firm Creative
Technology is moving away from an "audio-only" focus
to make a fresh push in graphics-card and other related
markets, the Singapore Business Times said on Monday.
With its latest 3D Blaster line complementing its Graphics
Blaster family, graphics products could account for 15-20
percent of total revenue in the December quarter, the daily
newspaper quoted Creative Chairman and Chief Executive Sim Wong
Hoo as saying in an interview.
With Creative's latest Live! Experience breed of graphics
cards, Creative would be providing an integrated multimedia
solution built around its latest sound card Sound Blaster
Live!, the newspaper said.
Sim was interviewed by the Business Times in Las Vegas last
week at the Comdex Fall '98 computer trade show.
Creative was displaying its Live! Experience cards which
meld the 3-D audio and graphics cards, PC-DVD (personal
computer-digital video disc) video and Dolby-class speakers
into a single multimedia product.
The paper said that the card attracted much attention, with
massive crowds gathering at the Creative pavilion.
With its latest graphics rollout, Creative had already
clinched several OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals
and company officials hinted that there were more to come, the
Business Times said.
Although the sound-card maker told the paper the heart of
Creative's strategy was still in audio, it was ramping up its
other multimedia products such as speakers, produced by
Creative subsidiary Cambridge Soundworks, and PC-DVD systems
touted to replace CD-ROM drives.
The paper said this could raise Creative's gross margins in
the coming quarter above the 30-percent level, compared to
25-plus percent in the June quarter and 28 percent in the
previous quarter.
-- Singapore newsroom (65) 8703080; fax 7768112
-- E-mail: singapore.newsroom@reuters.com |
