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Technology Stocks : Creative Labs (CREAF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fred Fahmy who wrote (12354)	9/30/1998 7:28:00 AM
From: Savoirman	Respond to of 13925

Creative Pumps Up 3D Audio Standard: Sound Blaster Live! and Live! Value To Have 32 Hardware Accelerated 3D Channels Live!Ware Beta Program Ready For The Latest 3D Interactive Games SINGAPORE - September 30, 1998 - Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq:CREAF), the leading provider of multimedia hardware for the PC, today announced its latest Live!Ware beta program offering a free upgrade to all owners of Sound Blaster® Live!TM and Sound Blaster Live! Value. After downloading the free upgrade, Sound Blaster Live! and Live! Value users can enjoy the hottest 3D games - including Unreal - with the unprecedented support of 32 hardware-accelerated, high quality channels (at 16-bit and 48 kHz) that can be positioned simultaneously in 3D space. "Creative continues to raise the bar for computer audio," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman & CEO of Creative Technology. "We began to radically improve 3D computer audio by supporting full 3D using multiple speakers while the rest of the industry was advocating limited 3D audio on 2 speakers. By now offering 32 high-quality, hardware-accelerated 3D audio channels - four times the prior limit - Creative has shown that it will continue to innovate and lead. End users benefit as their games will now be playable with every musical note, gun shot, grunt or howl the developer meant them to hear." All end users and software developers of Sound Blaster Live! and Sound Blaster Live! Value are welcome to sign up for the beta program at the Live!Ware site, at sblive.com where there are more details on the new 32 hardware-accelerated 3D voice feature and beta program. Creative Delivers Complete 3D Gaming Solution for End Users and Developers Since its successful launch of Sound Blaster Live! and its line of multiple-speakers solutions, Creative continues to build on its powerful Environmental Audio technology - delivering an immersive, fully interactive gaming experience that completely envelopes the user. By participating in Creative's Live!Ware program, registered end users can be assured that their investment in Sound Blaster Live! is protected - with ever-increasing functionality and performance. The Live!Ware beta software also includes a new 3D voice manager, a versatile tool for software developers to determine and control how each of the 3D audio streams is applied so as to optimally achieve the most compelling and vivid 3D audio experience. The 3D voice manager supports Microsoft's DirectSound® Voice Management Property Set, an open industry standard that enables game developers to get maximum performance out of DirectSound® 3D and DirectSound 3D accelerators. Creative's Environmental Audio Extensions (EAXTM) is available to developers as an open application programmer's interface (API). EAX allows developers to add powerful effects that can include reverb, echo, acoustic properties for room size and many other effects that place the game player in the middle of the action. EAX combined with Sound Blaster Live!'s new 32 hardware-accelerated 3D channels will allow developers to create interactive environments in real time that deliver an action-packed realistic experience. About Environmental Audio Creative continues to drive the development of truly innovative software titles that leverage on its cutting-edge Environmental AudioTM hardware platform while taking full advantage of the Windows architecture. Creative's new audio products are based on revolutionary, programmable silicon, the EMU10K1TM, developed by the joint E-mu/Creative Technology Center. These new solutions will be the basis for a family of future audio accelerators for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT. About Creative Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of advanced multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music and productivity tools markets. Creative's products are marketed through the OEM, systems integrator and retail channels under a variety of trademarks, including the "Blaster" family name. With the Sound Blaster® PCI standard, Creative has produced a solution that utilizes a combination of hardware and software for near-perfect compatibility with existing DOS and Windows titles. Creative's corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing are based in Singapore, with sales, distribution and research and development being carried out through an extensive, global network of subsidiaries located in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More information on Creative's products and press materials are available at creaf.com.

To: Fred Fahmy who wrote (12354)	10/2/1998 7:31:00 AM
From: Doug Fowler	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13925

Fred: Are you still long on this dog? You must have lost a ton of money on it by now. Of course, I've lost a ton of money on a lot of stocks this year, the two biggest dogs being TDFX and CD. At this point, I need to choose a few that have a real future. Any ideas? I'll put forth one, which is eBay, but I am waiting for it to slide into the 20's first. (I don't think anybody can touch them. Yahoo is trying right now, but they are not making much progress.) Creative is dead in my opinion. Reasons: 1. Continued decline of PC prices, with cheaper components and more stuff built into the motherboard. 2. Inability to adapt to the lower-priced PCs. 3. People don't expect their PCs to be stereos or high fidelity systems. Basic sound is sufficient for 90 percent of the populace. And basic sound will continue to get marginally better. 4. Creative isn't innovative. It doesn't know how to adapt. Or it doesn't want to adapt. For it to be successful, it needs to work more on the software side, and less on the hardware side. It needs to think like RNWK. But then, Creative doesn't understand the Internet. Probably still thinks it is a big fad. 5. The Creative brand name means less and less. A few years ago, the Creative name was well known and meant something. Nobody even cares about SoundBlaster any more. 6. The consumer 3D market is saturated (witness the woes of TDFX). Sure, this will play a role in the future, and will come from Intel most likely. The key here, though, is that Creative is doing nothing innovative in 3D. They simply OEM the technology from someone else. And as Intel gains dominance, they won't even have an OEM market. 7. Creative won't own the DVD market either. Maybe they are doing OK now in a relatively niche market, but I can't see that lasting. Creative has always meant sound. For Creative, it has always meant hardware. But sound will be much more about software and communications and the Internet in the future. Creative is not adapting. They are not innovating. They just want to be a hardware company. A commodity hardware company. They aren't going away. They're just becoming irrelevant.