Creative Technology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Creative Technology Limited
Image:Creative logo.svg
Type	Public SGX: C76
Founded	July 1 1981
Headquarters	Singapore
Key people	Sim Wong Hoo, Founder & CEO
Products	Multimedia, IT, Consumer electronics
Revenue	▲ US$914.91 million (2007)^[1]
Operating income	▼ US$-61.12 million (2007)^[1]
Net income	▲ US$28.19 million (2007)^[1]
Employees	5,800 (2007)^[1]
Website	www.creative.com

Creative Technology Limited (SGX: C76) is a listed manufacturer of computer multimedia products based in Singapore where the firm was initially founded by Sim Wong Hoo on July 1, 1981. It has more than 5,000 employees worldwide. Sim is the CEO and the Chairman of the company. The US subsidiary of the company is known as Creative Labs, Inc.; this name is commonly (but incorrectly) used to refer to the entire company.

Historically, Creative is most famous for their Sound Blaster line of audio cards. At present, they are best known for their line of portable multimedia players. Creative has also gained some attention for a legal battle with rival Apple Inc.

1 History
2 Products
3 Lawsuit Settlement
4 See also
- 4.1 Divisions and brands
5 References
6 External links

History

Creative began as a computer repair shop, where Sim developed an add-on memory board for the Apple II computer. Later, they started creating customized PCs adapted for the Chinese language. A part of this design included enhanced audio capabilities, so that the device could produce speech and melodies. The success of this audio interface led to the development of a stand-alone sound card.

In 1987 Creative released a 12-voice sound generator sound card for the IBM PC architecture, the Creative Music System (C/MS), featuring two Philips SAA 1099 chips. Sim personally went from Singapore to Silicon Valley and managed to get RadioShack's Tandy division to market this card. The card was however not successful and lost the competition against the AdLib card which was using the Yamaha YM3812 chip (also known as OPL2). In addition to being a capable gaming card, the AdLib version was also a passable music synthesizer, which was a task the C/MS could not do.

Later, another attempt was made with the Sound Blaster, a card featuring the same chip as found on the AdLib card and with additional digital audio capabilities for playing and recording digital samples. Creative used aggressive marketing, like calling the card a "stereo" component even though the C/MS components offered stereo, or calling the sound producing microcontroller a "DSP", hoping to associate the product with a digital signal processor. This card soon became a de facto standard for sound cards in PCs for many years, mostly by the fact that it was the first to bundle what today is considered as part of sound card functionality: digital audio, onboard music synthesizer, MIDI interface and a joystick port.

In 2007, Creative voluntarily delisted itself from NASDAQ, which had the symbol of CREAF.^[2] Its stocks are now solely on the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST).

Products

Creative MuVo TX FM 512mb

Image:Creativelabs.jpg

Creative Labs headquarters in Milpitas

Creative is most well-known for:

Sound cards such as the famous Sound Blaster for the PC.
Gaming sound systems
CD-ROM and DVD players and controller cards
Graphics cards
Web cameras
Digital audio players and portable media players under the ZEN and MuVo brands.
Prodikeys, a computer keyboard-musical keyboard combination
Optical Mice and Keyboards

Lawsuit Settlement

On the 22nd March 2005 The Inquirer reported that Creative Labs had agreed to settle in a class action lawsuit that was filed because of the way its Audigy and Extigy soundcards were marketed. Creative has offered customers who purchased the cards up to a $62.50 reduction on the cost of their next purchase with Creative, while the lawyers involved in filing the dispute against Creative will receive payment of approximately $470,000.^[3]