Iriver Totally Explained

Everything about Iriver totally explained

iriver (formerly iRiver) is a brand and division of ReignCom, manufacturer of digital audio players and other portable products. They typically include USB mass storage, or the Media Transfer Protocol, multiple codecs, FM tuners, recording capabilities, and upgradeable firmware. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, iriver is the consumer electronics marketing arm of ReignCom, a company founded in 1999 by seven former Samsung executives.

History

In 1999, Duk-Jun Yang and Rae-Hwan Lee left Samsung Electronics, along with five colleagues. They formed ReignCom, with Yang as CEO, originally as a semiconductor distributor, then decided to capitalize on the growing MP3 player market. They decided to outsource manufacturing to AV Chaseway, located in Shenzhen, China, and contract product design to INNO Design, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, CA, while keeping R&D in-house. before jumping to other types of players. The company rose to the No. 1 position in the global market, before being displaced by the iPod's introduction.
   In 2002, iriver scrambled to develop its first flash memory player to meet demand from the U.S. Best Buy chain. A year later, it was first to market with 512 MB and 1 GB players, and completed its IPO at KOSDAQ, a Korean stock exchange. By this time, the company was also selling hard drive players to compete with the iPod. It also used adult film star Jenna Jameson and an Audrey Hepburn lookalike as spokesmodels promoting its products.
   iriver adopted a new marketing strategy in 2005, attempting to grab mindshare from Apple. It referred to the U10 flash player as the thumb thing. This referred to users controlling their MP3 devices with their thumbs, just as they do their cell phones and text messaging devices. The company also announced plans for digital audio players featuring Internet telephony.
   iriver's U.S. unit, based in Vancouver, WA, held 3.4% of the U.S. MP3 player market in 2005, according to IDC. The company targets early adopters among American users as it tries to regain dominance of the category. It also opened sales divisions in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.
   ReignCom announced in May, 2006 that it would adjust its focus toward handheld mobile gaming. It has also reported sluggish sales for its music player business, including a loss of 35.58 billion won (US$36.68 million) in 2005, compared with a net profit of 43.46 billion won in 2004. ReignCom also owns the Korean-language Yurion and Funcake entertainment services.
   In its South Korean home market, iriver accounts for 50% of sales and the company has bought ads claiming its products are a symbol of patriotism. It also operates a small chain of iriver Zone stores, with locations in China, Japan and Korea. The Incheon International Airport shop features a large heart-shaped art piece, which represents the corporate "Heartbeat Philosophy" of "dedication to its customers."
   In May, 2007, Reigncom announced a new division, Reigncom USA, to manage the iriver brand in the United States and help develop new products.(External Link

) The company also bought the Siren brand in Japan from A-MAX Japan, despite protests from Siren Inc. itself.(External Link

)

Product Features

iriver's current products can all play MP3 and WMA audio files. Some units support text viewing, Ogg Vorbis audio files, Macromedia Flash, and/or BMP files. The company also supports Microsoft PlaysForSure, which allows recent products to support subscription-based music download services, including URGE, Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. It also lets users disable its DRM functionality.
   A nearly unique feature of the newer iriver players is the direct MP3-recording capability with selectable bitrate of internal (FM, microphone) and external (line) sources.
   Many players supports multilingual display in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. They support Winamp playlists and allow repeat, shuffle play, and programmable functions. Several preset and one user-defined EQ settings are included, plus a built-in FM tuner.
   Most iriver players include a unique feature called study mode. Users can quickly jump back and forth within tracks by a certain time interval, set from three to 180 seconds in current models. The option was designed to help people listening to recorded language lessons. SonicBlue removed this feature from its Rio Volt models, causing some users to hack their players with iriver firmware from other regions.

Mobile Internet Device (MID) / UMPC

Wing

iRiver Wing introduced at Consumer Electronics Show January 2008. (photos

Portable Music Players

iriver makes Hard drive, Flash and portable media players. All hard drive and flash players play WMA, MP3, and OGG files and have FM tuners unless stated otherwise.

Hard disk based players

Current

None, currently but the iriver clix3 and the P10 will have 1.3" 33GB hard drive manufactured by Samsung Electronics.

Discontinued

E10: (6 GB) Similar interface to that of the U10 series. The device also features a remote control for TV. PlaysForSure and UMS are supported. The device allows Flash files to be played, videos and FM radio. It contains recording capabilities for both voice and FM radio.
H10: (5 GB, 6 GB, 20 GB—except Asia), available in 4 different colors (red, blue, silver and grey), 16-bit color screen, can record from Radio, Internal Microphone (Voice) or Line-In (Line in only with extra cradle). The 5 GB and 6 GB models are around the size of the iPod mini and are composed mainly of aluminum. The navigation is done with a touchpad designed by iriver. These devices can't play Ogg Vorbis files. PlaysForSure and UMS.
iHP-100 series: (10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB) Voice, line in and FM recording. Optical in and out. Built in lithium-polymer battery. UMS. USB 2.0 connectivity.
H300 series: (20 GB, 40 GB) PlaysForSure and UMS. Built in lithium-polymer battery. Transfer with certain Digital Cameras. Voice, line in and FM recording. Plays video with Korean firmware. USB 2.0 connectivity.
iGP-100 (1.5 GB) USB 2.0 connectivity. Plays only MP3 and WMA files. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery.

Flash memory based players

Current

T60 series: (1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB). Using AAA battery. Smaller than T50.

S7: (1 GB) Small, screenless version of S10.

S10: (2 GB flash) Very small player, only 17.5g. Has OLED screen. Uses D-click control system. Built in lithium-polymer battery. UMS. USB 2.0 connectivity.

Mplayer and the newer Mplayer version 2: A Mickey Mouse head-shaped digital audio player.

The Lplayer S20

E100: A portable media player with video, music, photo and a built-in FM tuner.

The Clix gen 2 Supports MP3 & OGG audio files. WMV, DivX & XviD video. Flash Lite games, and display of JPGs & plain text files. Hi-Res AMOLED screen. Player is about the size of a credit card. Comes in 2 & 4 gigabyte versions.

Discontinued

T50 series: (1 GB). Using AA battery.

T10 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB). Semi-prism shaped.

T30 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). Prism shaped, PlaysForSure and UMS.

T20 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). USB-Stick design. Voice, line in and FM recording. Built in lithium-ion battery. PlaysForSure and UMS.

U10 series: (1 GB, 2 GB), 2.2" screen, Uses D-click control system, Flash lite support

H10jr.: (512 MB, 1 GB). Smaller but same shape as H10. USB 2.0 connectivity. FM tuner. Voice and FM recording. Built in lithium-ion battery. PlaysForSure and UMS.

N10 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "Medallion-style" — worn hanging from the neck. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS.

N11 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "Medallion-style" — worn hanging from the neck. Features longer battery life than N10. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery. OLED Screen.

iFP-100 series: (32 MB, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB) Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. Plays MP3, WMA and WAV files. Prism shaped. MTP (UMS upgradable).

iFP-300 series: (64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB). Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in, and FM recording.

iFP-500 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). Soap bar shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Built in lithium-ion battery. Voice, line in and FM recording.

iFP-700 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 4 GB). Prism Shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording.

iFP-800 series: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB). Prism Shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording.

iFP-900 series: (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) Soap bar shaped. Color 1.2" LCD display. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery

iFP-1000 series: (256 MB, 512 MB). 0.3 megapixel digital camera built-in, prism shaped, color screen. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Removable lithium-ion battery

"SlimX" sub-series: iMP-550, 450, 400, 350 European customers should be aware that several models are missing the FM Radio functionality available in other world markets. Iriver initially dropped UMS support for the U10, T30, T20 & T10 models in favor of Microsoft's MTP. The company later released an official Firmare Updater that allows users to switch between the MTP and UMS interfaces (for some models except 256 MB and 2 GB ones). The updater will only connect to the player from Windows XP SP1 or above.
Although the T10 2 GB version distributed in the US and Canada doesn't officially support such firmware, the European version does. There is currently ongoing discussion on the misticriver forums

to port this firmware for use on the US version.

Portable media players

Current

clix: iriver's flagship product. Started off as a rebranded U10 player and underwent a completed redesign in 2007 with the 2nd generation player. Best known as the implementer of iriver's direct click interface. Both the first and the second generation of the clix were very well received by critics, and both are the highest rated mp3 players ever at CNET with 8.7/10

Generation 1: (1GB, 2GB, 4GB) Rectangular with rounded edges, 2.2" LCD, 70 grams, microphone and FM radio recording, cradle available for extra functionality.
Generation 2: (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) Stretched rectangle with rounded edges. 2.2", Active Matrix OLED Display, customizable with themes, FM and voice recording, UMS(MSC) - MTP compatible (interchangeable), cradle available for extra functionality.
- Update (Clix+): (4GB, 8GB) A somewhat flatter Clix model featuring a DMB tuner. the previous generations, the Clix+ has a 2.2" AMOLED screen.
X20: Portable video player (PVP) with a removable battery. Expandable with microSD cards.
P10 and P20
Player and Player II(screen version of the Player)
Spinn: (8GB, 16GB) 3.3", Active Matrix OLED Display, FM and voice recording, T-DMB, Expandable with microSD cards.
W7 is a media player featuring a 3" touchscreen and an optional car dock, which adds GPS functionality.

Discontinued

PMC Series: (20 GB, 40 GB) ("Portable Media Center") running Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center.

PMP Series: (20 GB, 40 GB) ("Portable Media Player") discontinued for the PMC. The U10 and Clix can also play Flash Lite 1.1 games in the .swf format.

Korea-only electronic dictionary player

D-10 (Dicple, which is a simplified character of dictionary & (mp3) player) This is an Electronic Dictionary featuring music playback. It is selling after 2004 Dec.

D-20 (Dicple α) This is also an Electronic Dictionary. Featuring an improved elegant design and a 4.3, 260000, TFT color screen supporting pictures and other features that a typical electronic dictionary does not. It is designed to mimic the look of a laptop at 176(W) x 81.9(D) x 26.7(H) mm and comes in glossy red or black. The device has a 22 hour battery life for browsing the dictionary and a 30 hour battery life for audio. It is selling after 2006 Jan.

D-25 (Dicple 51) This Electronic Dictionary features 4.3, 260,000, TFT color screen, 1.3gb flash memory. This device is also known as Dicple 51 due to its number of contents. It is selling after 2006 Aug.

D-26

D-30

D-5Further Information

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