Jaguar3 Android Tablet from Creative - Come on Creative! Come on Sim Wong Hoooo!

[Rogue Trader]

Will ZiiLABS' Jaguar3 finally save Creative?

It has been years since Mr. Sim Wong Hoo appeared at any of Creative's press event. But at the recent ZiiLABS' Jaguar3 closed doors press event in Singapore, Sim appeared with a clear message: "I'm here today because I want to tell our shareholders and to lift the morale of our employees that we are leading in the game."

The message couldn't have come at a better time. Creative's stock had fallen to an all time low of $2.4 a few months ago and was recently put on the watch list of the Singapore Exchange for having 3 consecutive years of pre-tax losses. The company has been struggling to stay in the black from quarter to quarter. The demand for Sound Blaster products have been decreasing as people are switching to on-board audio, its portable media players are under intense competition against the Apple's iPod while adoption for the company's wireless speakers are not picking up as fast as one would wish for.



The shining bacon of hope for Creative, is the company's subsidiary ZiiLABS' Android reference tablet codenamed the Jagaur3 . Boasting one of the world's thinnest reference tablet design (that is if your remove all the frills), the Jagaur3 is powered by the ZiiLABS' ZMS-20 stemcell processor and has a 10.1' capacitive touchscreen and Android 3.2. OEM customers can also choose to upgrade the chip to a more powerful ZMS-40 quad-core processor simply by swapping the chip into the "granddaughter board". The most basic tablet could just cost U$100 to make.

Shedding more light on ZiiLABS' strategy, Sim revealed that the company has about 100 patents which was developed with the Jaguar3. Furthermore, Creative is now one of Google's approved vendor and has access to the source code to Android 3.2 OS - something which they did not have when developing the ZiiO. "We know how the technology works, we can build future iterations of Android very quickly now," Sim said.

Sim believes that "The gold mine is coming. We're nearly there," and he does have a valid reason for such optimism. The tablet market is growing at an unprecedented rate and there is certainly a market for low-end, high quality tablets as seen from the recent TouchPad $99 fire sale. If ZiiLABS can produce a worthy Android 3.x tablet at a sub-$200 price point, it certainly has a winner on hand.

Most tablets in the market now are priced ridiculously close to the Apple's iPad and have little differentiating factor. To put it simply, when you place all the Android tablets together, you can hardly tell one from the other. Instead of going head-on with the iPad, ZiiLABS' strategy of empowering companies to produce tablets at at least a third of the price could be its winning formula. Also, Sim's vision of transforming the landscape of education (at least in China) by digitizing textbook into an Android-friendly format onto an affordable tablet (or a highly subsidized one by the government) could give it a foothold in the tablet market. But admittedly, Creative faces a long, uphill battle to say the least.

In a market dominated by major players like Intel, AMD and Nvidia, ZiiLABS is relatively unheard of. Also, with the lack of an actual, successful shipping product, companies are understandably wary of the company's capability. Sim also did specifically mention that the Jaguar3 is "real" and "it's working", probably referring to the company's previous unsuccessful product - the ZiiEGG.

While I feel that it's good that ZiiLABS is focus on the OEM market instead of taking the big boys head-on, Creative as the parent company should lead by example and produce the company's first ZMS-20 powered Android 3.x tablet. To put it in Sim's own words, the "tablet market is pure ruthless in every sense", where even "a fast-track 6-month design cycle can still be lethal". Therefore, it would make sense of the company to produce a worthy and affordable Android tablet while the ZMS-20 is still considered an advanced processor than to wait for companies to adopt the platform.

Below are some of the demo videos of the Jaguar3 platform, honestly it does look promising
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[Rogue Trader]

Video: Android 4.0 running on ZiiLABS ZMS-20 reference tablet

The chip inside this ZiiLABS reference tablet that has turned up on video at ARMdevices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich today is the ZMS-20. That ZMS-20 chip launched first back in May and at the time was specifically for Android 3.0 tablets that were heading to market. That reference platform is now in the middle of its Android 4.0 dress rehearsal.

The gang at ZiiLABS has caught the tablet on video as it runs through some of the features of ICS. The video shows the slick UI transitions that are very fast and fluid. There appears to be almost no lag between the swipe and the next page showing up on the tablet screen. The demo also shows the photo transitions for zooming and slideshow.

Those transitions are smooth and the high quality images remain in original quality. The gaming demo is the coolest to me though because that is what I end up using my tablet for more than anything else. The games run very smoothly and look really good. There is also no apparent lag between input by the user and movement on the screen. Lag is the gamer’s enemy. We reviewed Android 4.0 a while back if you want to know more about the coming OS. Check out the video below.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ReI5y4Ju5cA?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[leetahbar]

omg! squarebox sim trying to imitate steve job in his dressing?? his 365 days uniform is white casual shirt and black pants.

 

[leetahbar]

i bet not many know that CREATIVE had also recently put on sale a blackbox containing all SHAW BROTHERS' oldies mandarin movies which was selling a a promo price about slightly more than $500+.

how was the response like? doubt it would be any good cos those movies could easily be found in internet FOC.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Looks like they've been toiling the fields silently these couple of years.. and came up with an android tablet processor chip to rival the big boys like tigra and qualcomm. Impressive.

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[singveld]

too little too late. all just copy apple.

 

[Unrepented]

See the subliminal message on his t-shirt.:o

Will ZiiLABS' Jaguar3 finally save Creative?

 

[Confuseous]

Here we go again. Another impending product failure because:

- this guy does not believe in marketing and advertising. His philosophy, build a better mouse trap and the world will flock to you.
- this concept died 20 years ago. It is all about Branding; even hospices do it, according to the ST today. HCA Hospice Care, set up in 1989, then decided to go through a rebranding exercise that repositioned it as a young caregivers programme - a move which not only secured more funding but also attracted more talent into hospice care.
- products like these are life-style products and no one wants to be seen with a 'cheap' lifestyle product. The higher the price, the better the demand.
- their MP3 player was the best in the world when launched; Apple's later product did not touch it, feature-wise, quality-rise. No branding, no sell.
- he does not seem to have learned from the Indians - someone produced a really cheap tablet, today dead. Iin Singapore, some Indian chap also produced a very very cheap tablet and launched before iPad 1 - RIP.
- he should also clean up his building. His building is not spick and span and has a very tired look; the carpark is danky and dim. Not in keeping with a company which is supposed to produce high tech stuff.

I like the guy, and really wish him well but he's sitting on another dud. People coming out with iPad 3 in April, and he's 'launching'.

 

[tonychat]

If that processor is so damn powerful, then focus on that by doing an all round marketing that teach people they way to use the tablet to take advantage of it prowess.

But .. the look of its tablet kind of sucks. if he can design it to have that cool factor and some of the unique apps that complement that cool factor, then it works well.

Just by harnessing its processor isn't enough. Most people using the tablet are not technical-interest guys who gives a shit about the processor only. The design , the fun factor and cool factor and the style needs to come in too.

They ought to get in a design and marketing team that truly understand this.

I dun think this product will be as successful as they will want it to be. Take a look at Samsung, that is how marketing and technical team work together..and apple too..

 

[Conqueror]

Frugality Is A Good Philosophy Mah

Here we go again. Another impending product failure because:

- this guy does not believe in marketing and advertising. His philosophy, build a better mouse trap and the world will flock to you.

... someone produced a really cheap tablet, today dead. Iin Singapore, some Indian chap also produced a very very cheap tablet and launched before iPad 1 - RIP.
- he should also clean up his building. His building is not spick and span and has a very tired look; the carpark is danky and dim. Not in keeping with a company which is supposed to produce high tech stuff.

Maybe, he was poor and he may still have the tendency to go cheapskate. Not bad for an affordable Android Pad that works. Don't buy an Archos ! I actually saw how it works and it really sux ! Can't even watch YouTube !

 

[garlic]

Re: Frugality Is A Good Philosophy Mah

He should get creative and rename his company orange...

 

[eatshitndie]

Re: Frugality Is A Good Philosophy Mah

He should get creative and rename his company orange...

durian is a more appropriate name. totally useless and ugly fruit on the outside, but when jail broken into, offers pungent smell, shitty texture but delicate taste for those with acquired sense of insanity.

 

[tun_dr_m]

Their spec did not want to reveal but RAM only at 2GB. Small ...

 

[Rogue Trader]

Here we go again. Another impending product failure because:

I agree with you on the marketing and branding part. It has certainly let him down in the past and he seems to be headed that way again. But 2 points he mentioned:

- he's targetting the low end market.. like the education sector in China where brand (and therefore price) is comparatively irrelevant.
- the jewel of the crown is actually their new ZMS chipset. even if the tablet fails, the processor chip may save them. The supply of processor for the recent tablet boom has reached critical levels. Smaller manufacturers like HTC is actually drowning due to supply chain issues. The industry might turn to creative to alleviate the processor crunch.

I like the guy, and really wish him well but he's sitting on another dud. People coming out with iPad 3 in April, and he's 'launching'.

That's not an apple to apple comparison (pun intended). The iPad is apple's propriety product; Creative is riding on the android wave. And going by the recent trend, the android tablet movement is gaining a lot of ground.

I am, by any means, not a Creative fanboy. But it is refreshing to see Creative and SWH come into the red-hot tablet scene with guns blazing. I will be following the developments and wish them all the best!

 

[Conqueror]

You Mean ... Sunset Products ?

See the subliminal message on his t-shirt.:o

See the above pic ? He's praying very hard ... tio bhay pio ah ! huat ah ! huat ah !

Let's see how long he can cross his fingers. LOL

I hope he has something to show this time round for Sinkiesland. A bit too late ? I'm not sure about this yet.