Creative Technology will spend US$100 million next year to market its portable media devices in a worldwide campaign to grab market share from Apple Computer and its popular iPod player.
Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo is quoting by the Reuters news agency as saying, “the MP3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war. I’m planning to spend some serious money – I intend to outmarket everyone.”
Mr. Sim is quoted as saying it has a 10% share of the MP3 market and is targeting a 40% share next year. It will have an uphill battle. Research firm NPD reported in early November that Creative had a 9.3% share in flash-based and hard drive-based portable media devices combined in the U.S., putting it in third place behind Apple with 41.9% and Rio with 10.0%.
Among hard drive-based devices only, Creative controls 2.3% of the market in the U.S., far behind Apple with 92%.
Mr. Sim said he intends to spend most of his marketing budget in the U.S.