iriver
The international company iriver (full name: iriver Co., Limited; until 2004 with the notation iRiver ) is a manufacturer of MP3 players, mobile video players and e- book readers. It was established in 1999 as a subsidiary of ReignCom Ltd.. founded and is headquartered in Seoul. The turnover was about 430 million U.S. dollars in 2004. iriver employs approximately 233 people worldwide. The company is listed on the Korea Stock Exchange KOSDAQ technology since late 2003.
In 2004, the subsidiary iriver Europe GmbH was founded with headquarters in Eschborn. Sales in Germany, however, takes over the company Astell & core and under this name.
History
The company ReignCom was founded in 1999 by seven former senior employees of the company Samsung. Originally marketed ReignCom semiconductors, but then focused on the development of MP3 players. Production was moved to China and taken over the product design from the California company INNO design, only the research and development was still based in South Korea.
Your first iriver product was the published in November 2000 portable CD player with MP3 support iMP -100. The models iMP -100 and iMP -200 were marketed in the United States of Sonic Blue, under the name Rio volts. Later models were sold by the company's own brand SlimX as " thinnest MP3 CD player in the world ".
Iriver has been the market leader of MP3 players and remained so until Apple was the market leader with its iPods.
In 2002, iriver began with the development of MP3 players with flash memory. A year later, they sold their first models with 512 MB and 1 GB of flash memory and were listed on the KOSDAQ a corporation. Also, hard disk player were offered in order to compete with the iPod can.
In May 2006 ReignCom announced that they would focus on the market of handheld consoles, and that their sales of MP3 players to decline.
At present, iriver departments in the United States, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. In South Korea, iriver has a market share of 50%.
Products
The product lines include portable MP3 and video players with flash or hard disk storage. Furthermore offered a CD player and an e- book reader with MP3 support. From the trade press were largely perceived positively, so long provided the e-reader Story HD is the highest resolution on the market. Most newer mp3 players of the company are supported by the open source operating system Rockbox.
Portable Media Player
The newer devices iriver distinguished mainly by the built-in recording function, with which one of the built-in microphone, line input, or, if present, can record the integrated radio tuner in mp3 audio signals. The current models can play all MP3 and Windows Media Audio files. Some models can also play the Ogg Vorbis format and look at the text, image and / or Adobe Flash files. The video players support the Windows media video and MPEG -4 format. Furthermore, the current devices have a deactivated by the user DRM support, with which one particular can play purchased music files from the Internet.
Selection
- H10 5GB or 6GB hard drive, 2004
- Clix GEN2 was developed in 2009 together with Microsoft and marketed.
- W10 should have WiFi and internet telephony and a navigation system.
- In October 2012 it was announced that iriver et al planning a new hi-fi player named Astell & Kern AK100 with support for FLAC and with optical output.
E -book readers
In September 2009, published iriver the first e -book reader of its product line, the model with the name " Story" works with the help of the E- Ink technology and supports the eBook formats. Epub and. Pdf comics in. jpg or. zip format as well as music files. mp3 and. wma. iriver went several partnerships with international bookselling chains ( Kyobo Books in South Korea, Waterstone's and WHSmith in the UK); Germany in cooperation with the firm Hugendubel was closed.
The successor iriver Story HD ( 2011), with its 6 " wide manufactured by LG E -ink display resolution of 768x1024 dots at 213dpi.