Do you think they would do that though?
I think it would be an incredibly successful decision.

__________________

I think it would be a good decision to make their products- like the clix2 8gb more accessible in the US instead of making multiple players that are also not accessible. I know there have been a lot of people waiting for the clix who ended up buying other products that were more available and equally good. My only reason for waiting for clix is because of audible support. Otherwise, I'm as happy with my 4gb cowan as I have been with any of my irivers and would just go ahead and buy another cowan.

No... too cost prohibitive and the market would be very small due to the cost.

The key thing to remember about iriver. They are KING in Korea. There is no one bigger in Korea than iriver, not i-Station and not Cowon. That is the market that is their bread and butter and that's where they are going to focus their efforts. They also realize there is a market in the U.S. but with their size and capital, they simply cannot compete against the likes of a Creative, Sandisk or Apple.

__________________
www.clixhere.net
www.theiriverstore.com

I recently watched a commercial about iriver Korea. They are small company compose of only ~400 employees (top to bottom) but they are rated as top 3 DAP manufacturer in Korea. Their players took 1st and 3rd position of last quarter Korean DAP market, selling more than 10 thousands players (that is properly more than twice as much as their sell figure of the world combined, except China). For now, there simply isn't any more important market for iriver than Korea and China. Any effort might be first directed to secure and expend those two markets, and not any other places.

__________________

meh, the HDD is just a step back, everyone's losing the HDD's now, don't know who came up with such a bright idea to bring it back... and not on a new series of players, but on clix?

At least iriver has that mystery player (16GB would be perfect), otherwise I am not going to buy another iriver.

It's a 1.4" HDD

I remember reading that iriver had only manufactured 100,000 clix's. If iriver wants to expand, they should think viral marketing.

One of the reason why we can't seem to find the 8GB clix2 fast enough might have something to do with the wrong estimation of demand. In the beginning, not even iriver was confidence that their clix2 would be such a smashing hit on the Korean market (and also the China market). They knew they had a good product at hand, but properly only going to achieve about the same level of success as their other previous player. Well, they were wrong. As the first three months went by, iriver sold out 70000 units in Korea/China along before it even went global. After that (till now), all they are doing is trying to catchup with the demand, hence the delay of 8GB player.

__________________

It's actually 1.3" .
But how thick is it going to be?

__________________

I've been sitting on the fence about getting a Clix2 for a long time... now that the Clix3 has been announced, I may just wait for it.

However, based on the *very* sketchy details that have been revealed, I wonder if those characteristics that made the Clix such a hit will still be there.

e.g.,

- Screen: the announced 3'' is great (much better to view movies than 2.2'', and even better if widescreen), but the only details about about it are that it is an LCD. There is no mention of it being an AMOLED screen. Given this was mentioned about the other mystery 4'' device, I fear that we may have to settle for an ordinary (although likely quite nice looking) LCD screen. Nothing beats AMOLED for clarity and crispnes, IMHO...

- Storage: On one hand I will welcome the added capacity of the 33gb hard drive, but this almost single-handedly removes it from consideration because of the moving parts involved. I can't see myself going for a run or to the gym with this device. I wonder if SDHC support (4gb-32gb) would have been preferable, as with the new Creative Zen and Sansa View competition...

I am still quite hopeful, but with those preliminary specs, I wonder if Iriver is not straying a bit from the crowd that embraced the Clix2 so feverishly...

4.3" sounds good. Go to www.misticriver.net and have a look.

Link? What's this 4.3" for?

Just a link to one of the new proposed players from iriver. I like to keep iriver in the family so pointed it to misticriver.net instead of the competitor.

Here it is:

A Bevy of Players Still to Come from iriver in 2007 - MisticRiver :: For iriver Enthusiasts

and the W10:

2007, ÇÑÂ÷¿ø ´Ù¸¥ ¾ÆÀ̸®¹ö°¡ ´Ù°¡°©´Ï´Ù.

__________________
www.clixhere.net
www.theiriverstore.com

I didn't type that link wtf?