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Just when some thought Apple was not doing so well in Japan with the iPod only reaching a 36% market Laptop Battery share, apparently the iPod is struggling to sell at all in South Korea with just a mere 1.8% market share. There, the iRiver leads the market with a 35% share, followed by Samsung at 14% and Cowon at 13%, however the iPod is only in 13th place with many other competitors including Sony and Creative still doing better. In the US, the iPod leads the market with a whopping 74% market share.

While most western consumers go after the iPod Acer Laptop Battery for its brand name and sleek style, in South Korea consumers want players with as many controls, features and coloured lights as possible. As the iPod lacks most of the features of other players (Radio, removable battery, recording, etc.) this is enough to put most South Korean's off these.

The iPod may dominate the MP3 player market in almost every country in the world, but one nation is holding out against Apple's onslaught.

Yes, South Korea, home of a number of contenders to the iPod's title, favours local product over all that 'designed in Acer LCBTP03003 Battery California' stuff.

According to market watcher GfK's Korean subsidiary, Apple's share of the South Korean MP3 player market is a mere 1.8 per cent - enough to put it in 13th place.

That compares to iRiver's market-leading 35 per cent share, Samsung's 14 per cent share and Cowon's 13 per cent, according to the Asia Pulse newswire. Between Cowon Acer TravelMate 4500 Battery and Apple sit the likes of Creative and Sony, and lesser local players.

The South Korean market was worth around KRW174.5bn ($xx) in H1 2005, down 16.9 per cent on the same period last year, GfK said.

It is nice to see that consumers from South Korea Acer Aspire 1410 Battery look at the specification as apposed to the style of a player before making their purchase. As iRiver is well known for its features, OGG Vorbis support and radio quality, it is not surprising to see this player leading the market there as a result. I wonder how well the iPod shuffle is doing there... ;)
MPIO launches world's smallest personal media player
Generally portable media players are larger than MP3 players by physical size, however MPIO has launched what they claim to be the world's smallest personal media player. This player has dimensions of just 32 x 55 mm with a weight of only 35g. The player features audio support for MP3, WMA (inc. DRM) and OGG Vorbis (up to Q10), picture playback for JPEG and video Acer Aspire 1680 Series Battery playback for MPEG4, WMV, AVI and DivX. It also has a built-in FM tuner and WMA voice recording.

Unfortunately with such a small physical size, its OLED screen is very small at just 1" and features a resolution of 96 x 64 with up to 65k colours. Its battery life is 11 hours from its Lithium-Polymer battery. Music can be transferred via USB2 at up to roughly Acer TravelMate 2300 Battery 10MB/sec (~82Mbps). The player comes in capacities of 256MB, 512MB and 1GB and is sold for UK£119, £139 and £179 respectively (from MP3 Plus) in the UK.

MPIO has launched what it is claiming is the worlds smallest Personal Media Player in the UK with a screen measuring an eye straining one inch in size. The unit itself itself measuring only 32 x 55 mm and weighs less than 35g.

The player will come in three memory sizes, three different colours and allow you to watch MPEG4, DivX, AVI, WMV movies as well as view JPEG images and slideshows.

Audio playback is via WMA, OGG and MP3 files while compatibility with WMA DRM means that you can play your downloaded music files on the player.

At a first glance, it looks like this player would be ideal for carrying a movie since one can easily fit a full movie on a Acer TravelMate 4000 Battery 512MB card by lowering the resolution and using a lower audio bit rate and most do not need more than two or three movies on most journeys. Unfortunately, with such a low resolution of 96 x 64 and a screen size of 1", this seems way too low for most movies, let alone showing photos on. :p

Here's something that might be of interest. The Playdock MP3 is a device that can cradle a select few Acer Laptop Battery players in a swaddling of foam, allowing playback of your music at volumes and quality, that Cambridge Soundworks says, rivals a home stereo. Housed in it's innards, is a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery making the unit portable anywhere that you can tote the 14 pound device. When fully charged, you can listen for up to 10 hours. What seems nice is that the unit can be used whilst plugged in as well, giving end users unlimited playtime. The other cool thing is, it charges your player Laptop Battery even while you listen, that could be handy.

Features:
Four cushioned holders accommodate a variety of MP3 players
Three-speaker design guarantees wide-range sound
15 watt powered subwoofer with 4-inch driver
Recharges select MP3 players while Acer TravelMate 290 Battery AC powered
Compatible with Creative players including the NOMAD Zen, Zen Touch, and Zen Micro lines, Apple iPod and Apple iPod Mini, Dell Pocket DJ and other similar MP3 players
Provides approximately 10 hours of playtime
Dimensions: 9 1/8 " H x 10 7/8" W x 10 1/4" D
System Weight: (approximately) 9 pounds, 10 oz (not including player, AC adapter)
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Corp

Detailed Specifications:
Type - Portable stereo speaker Acer BATCL50L Battery w/battery
Magnetically Shielded - Yes
Digital Input - No
Subwoofer Outputs - No
Component Dimensions - 2.5 in main speaker, 4 in bass
Speaker Dimensions - 9 5/8 in H 11 in W 10 1/4 in D
Subwoofer Channel Power - 15 watts @ 10% THD, 100 Hz
Left/Right Channel Power 6.9 watts @ 10% THD per channel, 1 kHz
Stands Included - Yes
Remote Control - No
Bass Level Control - No
Weight - 14 lbs
Speaker Warranty - 1 year

This device can be purchased Acer BTP-73E1 Battery directly from the Cambridge Soundworks site for $199.00 US and includes free UPS shipping.
LightScribe sees disappointing start, but looks ready to take off

When LightScribe was introduced early 2004 by HP, it seemed like a useful feature that would get users to purchase drives that feature it. LightScribe is a feature where the writer can 'burn' a label on the disc using its laser by simply loading the disc upside down. Unfortunately, sales of these writers featuring LightScribe were very low ever since their introduction. However, recently HP has managed Acer BTP-550P Battery to license its LightScribe technology to the majority of the major optical drive manufacturers apart from Plextor and NEC, despite a disappoint start. Despite the extra licensing costs, most manufacturers are starting to ship LightScribe drives with pricing similar to their existing regular models.
Then again, there are several likely reasons behind why LightScribe is slow to take off. First is the speed, in which the drive takes over 30 minutes just to burn the label. As LightScribe was designed to work with existing drive specifications, the burning process is limited by the BTP-44A3 Battery limited amount of power from the drive's laser. Also, unlike writing data to a CD, the LightScribe burning process requires the laser to be out of focus, thus reducing its effective power and how fast it can burn the label.
With recent improvements in the LightScribe coating, writing performance has been improved by around 50% over current LightScribe media, thus allowing a high contrast detailed disc to be written in about 20 minutes. This 2nd generation media is expected to hit the shops by the end of the year. So far when it comes to printing coloured labels, HP and other media manufacturers have not yet figured out how to create full-colour LightScribe discs, at least with existing drive lasers. On the other hand, they plan on releasing LightScribe discs in different colours, likely starting Acer BTP-42C1 Battery with Gold.
Labelling discs as part of the burning process is a compelling idea, but is the technology ready for widespread adoption?
The idea of creating disc labels using the same laser that you use to burn your discs certainly sounded intriguing when it was first introduced a year and a half ago.
That concept '� arguably the most innovative new feature to hit optical storage in years '� became even more appealing once LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology finally became a real product at the start of the year. The initial flow of drives that supported the Acer BTP-63D1 Battery technology, invented by Hewlett-Packard and licensed to all comers, was admittedly small '� but the numbers are about to increase.

For starters, HP's LightScribe business unit announced a slew of new licensees, including major consumer electronics firms such as Pioneer and Panasonic. More significantly, most of the major optical drive players say they will support the technology.

The addition of Hitachi/LG, Benq/Philips, Toshiba, and Lite-On to the technological party brings the total number of drive manufacturers licensing the technology to six. Missing from the list are only a handful of drive makers, among them NEC and Plextor, neither of which could comment on whether or not they had plans for LightScribe.
The full article can be read here.
As some models of Inkjet printers with built-in CD labelling are getting quite common, in my opinion consumers are likely to use a dedicated printer for labelling their discs than waiting 20 to 30 minutes to write a monochrome label using their DVD writer. Then again, LightScribe drives do have the advantage of not having to have a separate printer, especially with laptop users. At the moment, there are several reasons why LightScribe has not taken off that well, such as higher premium for LightScribe media, slow data write speeds (most LightScribe drives have a Acer BTP-52EW Battery 8x DVD-R and 2.4x DVD+DL max write speed), long label writing process of 30 minutes and being limited to monochrome labels only. Then again, it will be interesting to see what the future of LightScribe holds, especially since the technology is still relatively new yet.

For more information about LightScribe including our first review on a LightScribe drive, see this article.