Iriver
Encyclopedia
The company is a brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
and marketing division of Iriver.inc (formerly ReignCom
ReignCom
ReignCom is an electronics and entertainment company. Headquartered and based in South Korea, ReignCom is the parent company of mp3 player manufacturer iriver, as well as Yurion and Funcake Entertainment Services. Seven former Samsung executives created the company in 1999 and made its IPO on the...
), a South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n
electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
company founded in 1999 by seven former Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
executives.
History
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
, 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.
The company's first iriver product was the iMP-100, a portable CD player capable of decoding MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
data files on CDs, released in November, 2000. It and a later model, the iMP-250, were rebranded and sold by SonicBlue in the United States under the Rio
Rio (digital audio players)
Rio was the brand name of a line of digital audio players, best known for producing the "Diamond Rio" model that was the impetus for a lawsuit in 1998 by the Recording Industry Association of America...
Volt name. Iriver sold later models with its own SlimX brand, billing them as the thinnest MP3 CD players in the world, 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
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
chain. A year later, it was first to market with 512MB and 1GB 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
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
. It also used adult film star Jenna Jameson
Jenna Jameson
Jenna Jameson is an American entrepreneur and former pornographic actress, who has been called the world's most famous adult-entertainment performer and "The Queen of Porn."...
and an Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
lookalike as spokesmodels promoting its products.
Iriver adopted a new marketing strategy in 2005, attempting to grab mindshare from Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
. 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 Korea, Japan, and China. The Incheon International Airport
Incheon International Airport
Incheon International Airport is the largest airport in South Korea, the primary airport serving the Seoul national capital area, and one of the largest and busiest airports in the world...
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. The company also bought the Siren brand in Japan from A-MAX Japan, despite protests from Siren Inc. itself.
Product features
iriver's current products can all play MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and WMA
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
audio files. Some units support text viewing, Ogg Vorbis audio files, Macromedia Flash, and/or BMP
Beep Media Player
The Beep Media Player was a free audio player, based on the XMMS multimedia player. The lead developer was Milosz “deadchip” Derezynski. The BMP is mainly a port of XMMS to GTK+ 2 and, as such, integrates better with the look and feel of more recent versions of GNOME, Xfce, and, if using the...
files. The company also supports Microsoft PlaysForSure
Microsoft PlaysForSure
Starting in 2004, Microsoft PlaysForSure was a certification given by Microsoft to portable devices and content services that had been tested against several hundred compatibility and performance requirements. These requirements include codec support, DRM support, UI responsiveness, device...
, which allows recent products to support subscription-based music download services, including URGE
URGE
The URGE digital music store was an online music distribution service run by MTV Networks. URGE was integrated into Windows Media Player 11.URGE was opened on May 17, 2006. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Windows Media DRM, Microsoft's digital rights management...
, Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
, Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Yahoo! Music Unlimited was an on-demand online music service launched on May 11, 2005 and provided by Yahoo! Music.The service was discontinued on September 30, 2008.-Service:...
. It also lets users disable its DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
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 support 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.
Wing
iRiver Wing introduced at Consumer Electronics ShowConsumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
January 2008. (photos).
Portable music players
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
files and have FM tuners unless stated otherwise.
Discontinued
- E10: (6GB) 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. The E10 is still sold in Australia.
- H10Iriver H10 seriesThe iriver H10 is a series of portable digital audio players made by iriver, coming in multiple capacities and sizes. The series uses the PortalPlayer 5020 CPU. Every version of the series has a color screen....
: (5 GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
, 6GB, 20GB—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 5GB and 6GB models are around the size of the iPod miniIPod miniThe iPod Mini is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was the midrange model in Apple's iPod product line. It was announced on January 6, 2004 and released on February 20 of the same year. A second-generation version was announced on February 23, 2005 and released later...
and are composed mainly of aluminum. The navigation is done with a touchpad designed by iriver. These devices cannot play Ogg Vorbis files. PlaysForSure and UMS. - iHP-100 seriesIriver H100 seriesThe iriver H100 series is a series of discontinued portable digital audio players made by iriver company and originally released in October 2003. The models in the H100 series differ mainly in hard drive storage capacity...
: (10GB, 15GB, 20GB, 40GB) Voice, line in and FM recording. Optical in and out. Built in lithium-polymer battery. UMS. USB 2.0 connectivity. - H300 seriesIriver H300 seriesThe iriver H300 series includes two hard-disk-based, multi-codec music jukebox players, the iriver H320 and the iriver H340. Each can play music, transfer pictures directly from digital cameras and UMS-compatible devices, such as flash drives , and display digital images on a colour screen...
: (20GB, 40GB) 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 (1.5GB) USB 2.0 connectivity. Plays MP3, WMA, ASF, and Ogg Vorbis files. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery.
Current
- P7: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB versions with 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 resolution LCD touchscreen
- P20
- P35
- T8 Candy Bar: 4GB. Weighs 26g. Latest model in the T series. 1″ organic light-emitting diodeOrganic light-emitting diodeAn OLED is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compounds which emit light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes...
(OLED) 128 x 64 screen. - S7: (1GB) Small, screenless version of S10.
- S10: (2GB 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.
- S100: (4GB, 8GB) Weighs 77g. Has a 2.83" 240 x 320 screen with a T-DMB tuner, FM radio, voice recorder a microSD card slot.
- Mplayer and the newer Mplayer version 2: A Mickey MouseMickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
head-shaped digital audio player. - Lplayer S20
- E100Iriver E100The iriver E100 is a portable media player developed by iriver. It features a 2.4" TFT LCD 320x240 colour screen, built-in 1 watt speakers, a line in port and a microSD card expansion slot up to 8GB. The user interface is navigated by using the iriver trademark "D*Click". However, they are now...
: (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) A portable media player with video, music, photo and a built-in FM tuner. - E50 : (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) A Minor version of E100Iriver E100The iriver E100 is a portable media player developed by iriver. It features a 2.4" TFT LCD 320x240 colour screen, built-in 1 watt speakers, a line in port and a microSD card expansion slot up to 8GB. The user interface is navigated by using the iriver trademark "D*Click". However, they are now...
. Built with Aluminum. - E150: (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) Upgraded version of the E100.
- E200: (4GB, 8GB, 16GB) Major upgraded version of the E100. Built with full Aluminum.
- NV Life: (2GB and 4GB): An MP3 player based on Windows CE 5. It has a GPS and DMB feature. It has a touch interface with some keys for volume and power.
- NV: Similar to NV Life, except it has a turnable wheel to navigate in addition to the touch screen.
- SPINN: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB versions with a 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen and unique toggle-wheel based tactile controls.
- Smart HD (K1) : (8GB, 16GB) Portable Media Player based on Windows CEWindows CEMicrosoft Windows CE is an operating system developed by Microsoft for embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows...
Operation Software. Wi-FiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
, T-DMB tuner, FM radio, dictionary contents available. 3.5" 320 x 480 TFT-LCD touchscreenTouchscreenA touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
.
Discontinued
- 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 AMOLEDOrganic light-emitting diodeAn OLED is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compounds which emit light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes...
screen. Player is about the size of a credit card. Comes in 2, 4 & 8 gigabyte versions.
- S7: (1GB) Small, screenless version of S10.
- S10: (2GB 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.
- T6: 4GB. Thin low-end MP3 player. It has a colour 1.8" 128x160 screen. Light-up touch controls.
- T60 series: (1GB, 2GB, 4GB) using an AAA battery. Smaller than T50.
- T7 "Volcano" / "Stix": (4GB) 25mm Active Matrix 64x128px OLED Display; FM radio with recording facility and voice recording; SRS WOW HD; integrated Lithium Polymer battery and integrated USB connector.
- P10: (33GB) Portable Media Player with dictionary apps
- T50 series: (1GB) using an AA battery.
- T10 series: (256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB) Semi-prism shaped, MTP or UMS.
- T30 series: (256MB, 512MB, 1GB) Prism shaped; line in, PlaysForSure and UMS support.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:600iriver.jpg
- T20 series: (256MB, 512MB, 1GB) USB stick design. Voice, line in and FM recording. Built in lithium-ion battery. PlaysForSure and UMS.
- U10 series: (1GB, 2GB), 2.2" screen, Uses D-click control system, Flash Lite support
- H10jr.: (512MB, 1GB) 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 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB) "Medallion style" — worn hanging from the neck. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. - N11 series: (128 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB) "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: (32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB) Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity (4-pin mini-B plug). Plays MP3, WMA and WAV files. Prism shaped. MTP (UMS upgradable).
- iFP-300 series: (64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB) Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in, and FM recording.
- iFP-500 series: (256MB, 512MB, 1GB) Soap bar shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Built in lithium-ion battery. Voice, line in and FM recording.
- iFP-700 series: (128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 4GB) Prism Shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording.
- iFP-800 series: (128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB) Prism Shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording.
- iFP-900 series: (256MB, 512MB, 1GB) 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: (256MB, 512MB) 0.3 megapixel digital cameraDigital cameraA digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
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
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
support for the U10, T30, T20 & T10 models in favor of Microsoft's MTP
Media Transfer Protocol
The Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol . Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media...
. The company later released an official Firmare Updater that allows users to switch between the MTP and UMS interfaces (for some models except 256MB and 2GB ones). The updater will only connect to the player from Windows XP SP1 or above.
Although the T10 2GB version distributed in the US and Canada does not 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.
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, 70grams, 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 DMBDigital Multimedia BroadcastingDigital Multimedia Broadcasting is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones...
tuner. Like the previous generations, the Clix+ has a 2.2" AMOLED screen.
- Update (Clix+): (4GB, 8GB) A somewhat flatter Clix model featuring a DMB
- X20: Portable video player (PVP) with a removable battery. Expandable with microSD cards.
- P10 and P20
- APlayer and APlayer II(screen version of the APlayer)
- Spinn: (8GB, 16GB) 3.3", Active Matrix OLED Display, FM and voice recording, T-DMB.
- W10 is a media player featuring a 3" touchscreen and internet phone function with KTKT-Science:* kT in Physics* Knot , a unit of velocity * Kardashev scale, method of measuring an advanced civilization's level of technological advancement...
. - U100: Portable media player with WI-FI feature. Came out in January, 2011.
Discontinued
- PMC Series: (20GB, 40GB) ("Portable Media Center") running Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center.
- PMP Series: (20GB, 40GB) ("Portable Media Player") discontinued for the PMC.
The U10 and Clix can also play Flash Lite 1.1 games in the .swf format.
Ebook Readers
- iRiver StoryIRiver StoryThe Story is an e-book reader made by iriver, which runs a Linux operating system. When it was originally released it used code licensed under the GPL but did not make the sources available; this issue has since been addressed. It got updated in July 2010, now it supports Wifi...
- Electronic ink display device, with SD card reader and storage device. Future versions have been tagged to include wireless (802.11)
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-11
- D-20 (Dicple α) This is also an Electronic Dictionary. Featuring an improved 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-27
- D-30
- D-28 This is a minor version of the D-30. Removed PDF viewer and touchscreen.
- D-5
- D-33
- D-50N
- D-100
- D-150
- D-200
- D-1000
- D-2000
See also
- Digital audio player
- RockboxRockboxRockbox is a replacement for the standard firmware in various forms of digital audio players . It offers an alternative to the player's operating system, in many cases without removing the original firmware, which provides a plug-in architecture for adding various enhancements and functions...
(alternative, open source firmware for the iriver H10, H100 and H300 series)