by Josh Nowell
Creative Technology made its debut in the global PC community with the powerful Sound Blaster cards, and we all knew how Apple notebooks changed the way the world looked at laptops and computer accessories. It was a decade ago, and no one has heard much of them ever since.
Now, they are coming back, in full force, in what is seen as an explosive MP3 player war that started brewing the very moment Apple released its first iPod products that yet again changed the way teenagers had listened to music.
CNet reviews, as well as most other industry papers, consistently rank Creative and Apple undisputed leaders in the industry. Both produce cutting-edge MP3 players that go beyond even stringent standards of the avid music lover. Player capacity keeps breaking limits, from the mere 256 Megabytes three years ago to the current huge 60 Gigabytes. Furthermore, there are also added features of photo viewer and video screening that define the modern MP3 experience.
The war seems to promise a long-standing stalemate as both titans flex their technologies to outperform the other.
As I see it right now, perhaps Creative and Apple are misusing their precious microchips on hip-but-not-exactly-necessary attributes, photo and video viewer and personal organizer for instance (fortunately they have not released camera Zens or iPods), and essentially missing out on the definitive feature of MP3 players that could determine the number 1 leader between them.
I'm talking about MP3 music, and music editors.
Imagine the scenario in which you owned an MP3 player that not only excellently playbacks but also edits your music, molding it to your will. Imagine how your MP3 player could not only record your voice but compare it to your favorite artistes' vocal qualities as well. That, I say, would truly be the defining music experience by not only an MP3 player, but an MP3 player morpher, one that plays and personalizes your music collection.
Unfortunately, we could only imagine right now, as neither Creative nor Apple seems to shift the direction of this MP3 war, from feature-loaded to feature-focused. MP3 player users still have to endure a long wait before both factions realize the unending nature of the war.
However, when there's a will, there's a way. Though there's yet to be any MP3 player that could morph music in the market, PC users could savor the luxury of music editor software that not only morphs songs the way they like it but is also loaded with features such as voice comparator and multi-track editing panels that help mix music professionally. In addition, software products the like of Audio4Fun Music Morpher Gold further offer built-in special audio effects to be applied to users' collection of songs.
I wonder when Creative and Apple could develop this kind of genuine music software to be added to their MP3 players to make music truly creative.
About the Author:
Josh Nowell is a press correspondent for Media Morpher. He is an observer of technology trends and is keen on analyzing how technology could enrich the human life.
He could be contacted at media@audio4fun.com (Attention to Josh Nowell).