Creative technology

At the beginning of its history, Creative was a computer repair shop, on the basis of which Sim Won Hu created a memory expansion module for the Apple II computer. Later, the company began assembling PCs adapted to the characteristics of the Chinese language . One of the features was enhanced sound capabilities, so these devices could reproduce speech and melodies. The success of this sound interface inspired the company to create a discrete sound card .

In 1987, the company released a sound card for IBM PC-compatible Creative Music System (C / MS) computers with 12-voice support, based on two Philips SAA 1099 chips. Immediately after this, Sim leaves Singapore for Silicon Valley , where he is negotiating with Tandy to launch sales of his sound cards through the chain of stores of her RadioShack division. ^[3] However, C / MS cards lost the market for AdLib cards. Creative took a lesson from this, and in the company's next card - Sound Blaster - in addition to the C / MS sound device, a Yamaha YM3812 chip (also known as OPL2) was installed similar to AdLib cards, as well as components for playing and recording digital samples . Creative aggressively promoted its new product, from declaring stereo sound (in reality, only the C / MS component and not the whole product possessed such an opportunity) and ending with the use of the term “DSP” (digital sound processor) to describe the built-in microcontroller the hope of confusion in the minds of users with the term digital signal processor. The “DSP” of this board had the ability to encode / decode ADPCM in real time, but did not have other qualities inherent in digital signal processors (DSP).

Sound Blaster cards from the company became the first discrete sound processing solution, which became widely available for computers in general. This card quickly became the de facto standard in the field of sound cards for PCs, mainly due to combining in one device what is now considered to be a component of the sound subsystem: digital sound, an integrated music synthesizer, MIDI interface and a joystick port. This continued until the 2000s, when OEMs began embedding audio devices directly into PC motherboards, and Sound Blaster suddenly became a niche product.

In 1989, Sound Blaster monophonic cards were introduced, and stereo in 1992 (Sound Blaster Pro). Support for wave synthesis tables for MIDI was included in the 16-bit Sound Blaster AWE32 and AWE64 sound cards with support for 32 and 64 voices simultaneously, respectively.

By the mid-1990s, the failures associated with the company's risky attempts to enter the CD-ROM device market became apparent. The company was forced to write off approximately USD $ 100 million after the market crash due to flooding with cheaper alternatives ^[4] .

The company successfully established itself in the market of EISA devices for PCs, but this situation became more precarious after Aureal Semiconductor released on July 14, 1997 a very competitive sound AU8820 Vortex 3D for the PCI bus . In the meantime, Creative was developing its own solutions for the PCI bus, but its efforts to adapt the existing solutions for PCI did not have significant success. To quickly respond to this threat, in January 1998 the company acquires Ensoniq for US $ 77 million. On March 5, 1998, the company sues Aureal ^[5] for patent infringement regarding MIDI caching technology patented by E-mu Systems . ^[6] Following this, Aureal filed a counterclaim, ^[7] accusing Creative of intentionally undermining business relations, defamation, commercial sabotage, unfair competition with the intention to reduce Aureal's sales pace. The trial began a few days immediately after the Aureal's AU8820 Vortex1 entered the market.

Creative's first PCI sound card was Sound Blaster Live!, Released in August 1998 to compete with Aureal's upcoming AU8830 Vortex2 solution. ^[8] To promote its card, Aureal issued brochures comparing the new AU8830 with the current Sound Blaster Live !. The EMU10K1 chip specs, on which Sound Blaster Live! Is based, and the AU8830 from these brochures sparked a wave of new lawsuits against Aureal, ^[9] which accused Aureal of distorting and anti-advertising the capabilities of Sound Blaster Live !. ^[ten]

In April 1999, after numerous meetings, Aureal reached a favorable decision, but the legal costs incurred and the lack of investors forced the company to declare bankruptcy. The property of the company was subsequently acquired by Creative through the US Federal Insolvency Court for $ 32 million. ^[11] The main result achieved by Creative was the destruction of its main competitor in the field of three-dimensional gaming sound, with the exception of the later acquisition of Sensaura.

In April 1999, the company launched the Creative NOMAD line of digital audio players, which later became the wearable Creative MuVo and Creative Zen audio players . In November 2004, the company announced the launch of a large-scale campaign valued at US $ 100 million to promote its digital audio products, including its Zen series of mp3 players. ^[12]

On January 5, 2001, the company filed for US Patent 6,928,433 , which was granted on August 9, 2005. ^[13] The company received a patent for the invention of the user interface of a portable media player. This gave the company the potential to officially file patent infringement against the iPod interface from Apple and other competitors' products. The company took action against Apple in May 2006. According to an agreement between Creative and Apple, ^{[14] the} latter bought a license from Creative for US $ 100 million from Creative, and Creative itself became one of the participants in the Made for iPod program (made for iPod).

On March 22, 2005, The Inquirer announced that Creative had agreed to settle a class action lawsuit filed against the company due to its methods of promoting Audigy and Extigy sound cards. The company agreed for the users who bought their product to make a discount on the purchase of the next product in the amount of up to US $ 62.50, while the lawyers involved in this settlement received approximately US $ 470 thousand. ^[15]

In 2007, Creative voluntarily excluded its shares from the NASDAQ listing, where its shares were traded under the symbol CREAF. ^[16] After that, the shares of the company are traded exclusively on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX-ST). At the beginning of 2008, there was a reduction in staff at Creative Labs Technical Center, located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which became the subject of judgments about the financial condition of the company.

In January 2009, the company launched a mysterious website claiming a “stem-cell-like” processor, surpassing existing technologies by more than 100 times in its capabilities and intended for the consumer 3D market. ^[17] At the CES event in 2009, details were revealed about the ZMS-05 processor from ZiiLABS, a Creative division based on 3Dlabs and Creative Digital’s Personal Digital Entertainment department. ^[18]

In 2012, Creative reached an agreement with Intel , under which the latter receives licenses for certain technologies and patents of ZiiLABS Inc. Ltd, wholly owned by Creative, is also acquiring some engineering resources and assets of the British division of ZiiLABS for US $ 50 million. At the same time, ZiiLABS (owned by Creative) retains all rights to technologies and patents related to the StemCell processor, and also continues to supply and support the ZMS processor series. ^[nineteen]

Sound Blaster

Creative's Sound Blaster is one of the most recognized brands in the PC industry. In 1987, the company's first audio device, the Creative Music System, was released. In 1988, this device began to be distributed through a network of RadioShack stores called Game Blaster. A year later, the company releases the original Sound Blaster model, which had full compatibility with the sound card from AdLib , which then held a leading position in the market. This allowed the company by 1992 in the competition to establish full control over the market for audio devices for PCs. It also caused the bankruptcy of AdLib, whose products have lost demand.

ZEN and MuVo Portable Devices

The company uses the ZEN brand to designate its handheld device series. These devices are the "successors" of NOMAD players. ZEN devices have a number of awards, including three CES Best of Show titles: Creative ZEN Portable Media Center in 2004, ^[20] ZEN MicroPhoto in 2005 ^[21] and ZEN Vision: M in 2006. ^[22] MuVo brand is used for more compact flash- based devices.

Vado Camcorders

Being a supplier of webcams for PCs and laptops by this time, on May 8, 2008, the company revealed its plans to launch production of Vado camcorders. ^[23] Vado cameras, mobile devices with improved mobility, according to the company's plans, were to become a direct competitor to devices like Flip Video. In December 2008, the company announced the release of Vado HD - camcorders with support for high definition standards. ^[24] This model was one of the first video cameras of this type to support high-definition standards. Vado HD received a positive reception: PC World gave it a rating of 89, ^[25] PC Magazine - 4 stars out of 5 and the title "Editors' Choice", ^[26] and also received generally favorable comments from Amazon users. ^[27]

MediaSource

Creative's MediaSource is software that comes with products such as Sound Blaster, MuVo, and ZEN. Its main purpose is the transmission and synchronization of digital data.

Other products

• Gaming sound systems
• Webcams
• Prodikeys - a combination of a computer and music keyboard
• Optical Mice and Keyboards
• Headphones , including Sound Blaster and Fatal1ty
• Computer acoustics
• Electronic Dictionaries (Chinese)
• Creative Aurvana In-Ear Headphones
• Creative ZiiSound wireless headphones, as well as Creative D200 and Creative D100 speakers

Production discontinued

• CD and DVD players, drives and controllers
• Video cards
• Vado hd

A notable failure of Creative was an attempt in the late 1990s to enter the market for DVD drive manufacturers. The first models of drives built into computers did not have an IDE interface and required a special controller board. Combining a sound card and a DVD drive controller in one board was a convenient technological solution, and for the first time selling the “sound card - DVD drive” kits went pretty well. The decision to use ready-made Samsung drives, the quality of which turned out to be low, turned out to be unsuccessful. The numerous returns that followed have undermined consumer confidence in Creative products.

Creative released drivers for Windows Vista with reduced functionality by sticking the “Vista Ready” sticker on boxes with sound cards. Daniel Kawakami finalized the official drivers, eliminating this shortcoming and bringing the level of Vista-drivers to the level of those for Windows XP. Creative Vice President Corporate Affairs Phil O'Shaughnessy sent Daniel a letter stating that the drivers are their private property and no one has the right to modify them. Daniel was forced to stop his work. This caused a sharp negative reaction from users on the official Creative forum, many of whom spoke out in defense of Daniel and promised not to buy Creative cards anymore.

• Adlib
• Ensoniq
• E-mu systems
• Environmental audio extensions
• Yamaha

Brands and Units

• Cambridge soundworks
• Creative MuVo
• Creative Nomad
• Creative zen
• Sound blaster
• Sensaura

• Official site Creative
• Creative open source