iRiver Slowly Sinking

It looks like the portable MP3 player pond is getting less and less populated. Reigncom, maker of the famous iRiver devices is pulling out of most of the markets, maintaining a presence only in the U.S. and one or two other countries.

Just two years ago, Reigncom earned almost W1 trillion (US $1 billion) in annual sales, but those times are long gone, and this year, the company only had W37.9 billion in sales and W18.8 billion net losses in the first quarter. The company just cannot keep up with Apple's products that have won the heart of the public and are too competitively priced.

With increasing competition from Apple and heavy losses, the company is going to focus on portable gaming consoles hoping to make a turnaround. The WiBro is going to be an interesting device, allowing several users to enjoy the same game wirelessly. The device promises to be interesting, but it remains to be seen if it will be as big a success as the iRiver.

It remains to be seen what will become of the partnership with Microsoft and MTV for the URGE service, which had the iRiver as its preferred device. Without a doubt, this is one of the reasons why Reigncom has not pulled of the portable player entirely, however, with the iPod constantly going forward, it remains to be seen whether URGE's player will be able to at least keep up.