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Olympus m:robe - it just wasn't meant to be
comment: 16 | Wednesday, November 09 (2005) 04:16PM | Posted by Lone
Not so surprising, but sad nonetheless. Reuters reports that Japan-based Olympus will cease production of their m:robe DAP line, as well as cut back on some of their consumer model cameras, in order to concentrate on higher-end "prosumer" cameras.

Japan's Olympus Corp. said on Wednesday that it planned to shift the focus of its digital camera business away from compact models and sell more high-end single lens reflex cameras to boost profitability.

The Tokyo-based company also said that it would halt production of portable digital music players, unable to keep up with stronger players such as Sony Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. in the fast-growing market.


No more m:robe's then. We've been suspecting this since the recent insane MR100 special at Radio Shack, probably to get rid of excess stock. The millions "lost" on the MR500 Super Bowl ad probably didn't help much either. Even if their m:robe players didn't impress you with features, they likely caught your eye with their striking design, something which many DAP companies could learn from.

LINK

Thanks musicman and blessingx
Comments

Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:27PM  

I really doubt they are though. I mean wasn't there just a cnet review for an olympus player?



Hyper_Noodle

Comments: 226
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:37PM  

ssj, the cnet review was for an olympus player that's actually been out (albeit only in Asia, so far) for a while now. It wasn't really new in any way. Just expensive =P.



chicubs

Comments: 915
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:38PM  

yes, they're lying.



Lone

Comments: 973
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:45PM  

The picture is of the MR100, but all of their digital audio players (flash models included) were "mrobe's."



Lone

Comments: 973
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:46PM  

*listening to MR100 now in remembrance*



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Nov 09 (2005) 04:51PM  

It's quite unfortunate then if it really is their whole line. Those flash players were looking pretty nice.



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Nov 09 (2005) 05:36PM  

Sony should hire the designer (team) from the mrobe series and work on a better look DAP as the new NW-HD7.

If that happened, id be sold (mandatory removable battery tho).



musicman

Comments: 336
 		Nov 09 (2005) 06:28PM  

You'd be sold on a DAP that you haven't seen and don't know the feature set of?

I thought it was only us iPod owners that were that dumb.....



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Nov 09 (2005) 06:34PM  

^What makes you think an HD7 model would have less features than the HD5? HD5 as a portable audio device only, is pretty much perfect.

But hey, i admire your arrogance.....



graybandit

Guest
 		Nov 09 (2005) 06:49PM  

I'd be sad, but I already made out like a bandit with my MR-100.

If only they'd do something nice like opensource their firmware for those crazy ipodlinux dudes to mess with....



Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
 		Nov 09 (2005) 06:55PM  

Death of Rio was a tear jerker.. this is just... blah... whatever...



YpoCaramel

Comments: 169
 		Nov 09 (2005) 11:58PM  

I love my mr:100's looks too. It's a shame that Olympus wasn't more sucessful in the industry - their designs were beautiful, and functionality not bad. Rio may have had pratical features for the music listener, but Olympus always had a wow factor to it, more so than the ipod.



unit

Comments: 21
 		Nov 10 (2005) 04:52AM  

Ah that's a shame and unfortunately, it's possibly a sign of things to come(although Rio's demise was much more heart-breaking).

I liked the designs of the Olympus daps. Quite possibly some of the nicest looking DAP's out there, even if feature-wise they didn't cut it for me. I'm kind of worried however about the scaling back of their camera line. I've long sued Olympus products and they're great. I currently have an Olympus C-770 and love it. I hope there'll be an upgrade path in future...

The diminishing competition isn't good for anyone. LEt's hope the like's of Cowon, iRiver et al survive these difficult times. Personally, Cowon and iRiver should consider making DAP-phones opr entering a partnership with the likes of Nokia or Siemens. I've seen a huge growth in these in recent months and if Apple is vulnerable in anyway it's here. A phone with 4Gb flash memory, plays Ogg, Flac etc. I'd seriously consider buying one of those.



Donnie

Comments: 247
 		Nov 12 (2005) 11:04PM  

Just picked up an mr-100 last week (yea, that discount...). Not a bad player, but the m:trip software would have needed to be worked on. If Olympus didn't spend their ad money in the U.S. on two Superbowl ads, if they paid attention to their DAP line and paid less attention to the xD memory card format that themselves and Fujifilm invested in - maybe the m:robe line would linger on a bit to have its MR-F -series come to the states and have an improved model of the mr-500i.

But I also think Denon & Marantz Holdings' Rio division should have stayed afloat, since I'm impressed with the gapless playback.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Nov 13 (2005) 09:32AM  

too bad, what kan u do though



Donnie

Comments: 247
 		Nov 13 (2005) 12:25PM  

Yea, I can't do anything, heh. There's a lot of companies that are more inept at leadership than these. One obvious current example: Mitsubishi Motors - just had the remaining shares dumped by DaimlerChrysler.



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