Comments on: The day Rio's music died

Parent company of iPod rival says portable digital-audio market is too competitive to warrant new investment.

my first mp3 player was Rio 32MB

It was back in the 98... got my first Rio 32MB ($200 something i think) while getting paid $11/hr doing web programming. It was so cool when I showed it in my college class... Sorry to see it go, wonderful memory...

[robanga]

Mine too

I received it as a freebie where I worked in sales management. It was so cutting edge, I'd say to people it plays MP3's. They'd say ...What is that...like little tapes? The battery door broke and I kept in on with a rubber band. It lasted until moving up to a 64MB Sony pen player a year later.

my first mp3 player was Rio 32MB

It was back in the 98... got my first Rio 32MB ($200 something i think) while getting paid $11/hr doing web programming. It was so cool when I showed it in my college class... Sorry to see it go, wonderful memory...

[robanga]

Mine too

I received it as a freebie where I worked in sales management. It was so cutting edge, I'd say to people it plays MP3's. They'd say ...What is that...like little tapes? The battery door broke and I kept in on with a rubber band. It lasted until moving up to a 64MB Sony pen player a year later.

[David Dudley]

So long

And thanks for all the dead Karma harddrives.

[cjohn17]

Another One Bites the Dust

The early days of mp3 players were extremely torturous so I
don't miss this stinking relic and those like it. Remember the MS
Joliet naming specification? Thank God for iPods and Apple.

"Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I?m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust."

[SeizeCTRL]

What?

I've not had one single problem out of my Karma. It's running just as good now as it did 2 years ago. I suspect the battery to go soon but harddrive wise, not one problem.

My only complaint is there wasn't anything extra released. I've seen homemade cases and such for sale, but they look cheap and have no real design feel to them. Whatever happened to the remote?

It's been a great player for me but over the last few months I wish I would have gotten an iPod. My Karma has better sound than my g/f's iPod and more file support, but that's about all I can rub in her iPod's face :) My Karma looks so lonely in it's little cradle while her iPod sits in her Bose sound dock.

[David Dudley]

So long

And thanks for all the dead Karma harddrives.

[cjohn17]

Another One Bites the Dust

The early days of mp3 players were extremely torturous so I
don't miss this stinking relic and those like it. Remember the MS
Joliet naming specification? Thank God for iPods and Apple.

"Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I?m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust."

[SeizeCTRL]

What?

I've not had one single problem out of my Karma. It's running just as good now as it did 2 years ago. I suspect the battery to go soon but harddrive wise, not one problem.

My only complaint is there wasn't anything extra released. I've seen homemade cases and such for sale, but they look cheap and have no real design feel to them. Whatever happened to the remote?

It's been a great player for me but over the last few months I wish I would have gotten an iPod. My Karma has better sound than my g/f's iPod and more file support, but that's about all I can rub in her iPod's face :) My Karma looks so lonely in it's little cradle while her iPod sits in her Bose sound dock.

[heystoopid]

De ja Vu!

And , after fighting tooth and nail to destroy all mp3 players, and depleting the cash reserves of the groundbreaker, now all the major record companies seeing the how this format is a license to print money and obtain a 2nd or 3rd helping in royalty payments for the same old music previously sold, initially as an LP, secondly as a reissue on CD, and now as another reissue as an mp3 compressed version or Itunes! This is one hell of a license to print Money! In the recording industry the Gordon Gekko's rule! Vale RIO, De ja vu!, for the industry claimed the philips compact cassete was the main weapon of the music pirate, in times past, how times do not change!

[heystoopid]

De ja Vu!

And , after fighting tooth and nail to destroy all mp3 players, and depleting the cash reserves of the groundbreaker, now all the major record companies seeing the how this format is a license to print money and obtain a 2nd or 3rd helping in royalty payments for the same old music previously sold, initially as an LP, secondly as a reissue on CD, and now as another reissue as an mp3 compressed version or Itunes! This is one hell of a license to print Money! In the recording industry the Gordon Gekko's rule! Vale RIO, De ja vu!, for the industry claimed the philips compact cassete was the main weapon of the music pirate, in times past, how times do not change!

[Des Alba]

My Rio S35s Orphaned!

This is so sad! Rio was so far ahead of its time. No moving parts; 640MB of memory; ruggedness. I've had my Rio S35s for years and never had any problems; jog and workout with it daily. Not only does the FM radio work great but the 512MB SD cards I have provide a wide variety of programming possibilites, from canned music to delayed radio broadcasts in mp3 format. My family owns four different Rio Players. We'll miss them when they die.

[Des Alba]

My Rio S35s Orphaned!

This is so sad! Rio was so far ahead of its time. No moving parts; 640MB of memory; ruggedness. I've had my Rio S35s for years and never had any problems; jog and workout with it daily. Not only does the FM radio work great but the 512MB SD cards I have provide a wide variety of programming possibilites, from canned music to delayed radio broadcasts in mp3 format. My family owns four different Rio Players. We'll miss them when they die.

[NWLB]

New and old news.

It took Rio dying to get any coverage of the point that Apple didn't invent the MP3 player market.

Also notable that it took Rio being discontinued to get any note that the music industry attempted, and failed to kill MP3 players when they where introduced.

History repeats itself in different flavors.

NWLB
*****************
http://www.bloggercist.com

[NWLB]

New and old news.

It took Rio dying to get any coverage of the point that Apple didn't invent the MP3 player market.

Also notable that it took Rio being discontinued to get any note that the music industry attempted, and failed to kill MP3 players when they where introduced.

History repeats itself in different flavors.

NWLB
*****************
http://www.bloggercist.com

[Thomas, David]

Really Now?

Bottom-line ... they couldn't think of anything else. If they had,
they'd still be in the MP3 business.

[Thomas, David]

Really Now?

Bottom-line ... they couldn't think of anything else. If they had,
they'd still be in the MP3 business.

[David Dudley]

But!

They did think of things to come out, they just had no marketing whatsoever. And of course, the stuff they were planning on coming out with was not mind blowing, but some of it was somewhat original for an mp3 playing device. Like the Carbon C that was supposed to support themes or the Karma 2 that briefly was on the Rio web site that boasted 24 hours of playback thanks to a longer life battery.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000407056297/

[David Dudley]

But!

They did think of things to come out, they just had no marketing whatsoever. And of course, the stuff they were planning on coming out with was not mind blowing, but some of it was somewhat original for an mp3 playing device. Like the Carbon C that was supposed to support themes or the Karma 2 that briefly was on the Rio web site that boasted 24 hours of playback thanks to a longer life battery.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000407056297/

[SeizeCTRL]

Sad

My first MP3 player was the Diamond Rio 32mb, then I skipped Rio for my next player, but went with Rio Riot CD/MP3 player, followed by the Rio Volt 20gb and finally on the Rio Karma 20gb. I picked the Karma over the iPod mainly because it offered much more file support including FLAC and Ogg which I have a lot of. The sound to me is better than the iPod. My only complain was the lack of extras such as remotes, cases etc... my girlfriend has some really awesome stuff for her iPod and I will probably end up getting one just for all the extra stuff made for it. Sad to see the Rio line die off but I really believe they brought it on themselves. No marketing, no 3rd party extras... nothing other than what came in the box, while people continue to invent new goodies for the iPod that makes it so much consumer friendly.

Rio demise

My first MP-3 player was a Rio 800-128.
A bigger piece of junk I've not owned lately.
No customer support, very little trouble shooting advice in the
manual. Manual? You call that a manual?

Might have had something to do with their demise.

[SeizeCTRL]

Sad

My first MP3 player was the Diamond Rio 32mb, then I skipped Rio for my next player, but went with Rio Riot CD/MP3 player, followed by the Rio Volt 20gb and finally on the Rio Karma 20gb. I picked the Karma over the iPod mainly because it offered much more file support including FLAC and Ogg which I have a lot of. The sound to me is better than the iPod. My only complain was the lack of extras such as remotes, cases etc... my girlfriend has some really awesome stuff for her iPod and I will probably end up getting one just for all the extra stuff made for it. Sad to see the Rio line die off but I really believe they brought it on themselves. No marketing, no 3rd party extras... nothing other than what came in the box, while people continue to invent new goodies for the iPod that makes it so much consumer friendly.

Rio demise

My first MP-3 player was a Rio 800-128.
A bigger piece of junk I've not owned lately.
No customer support, very little trouble shooting advice in the
manual. Manual? You call that a manual?

Might have had something to do with their demise.

[Arbalest05]

MP3 player market in trouble soon?

It is sad to see RIO call it quits (D&M has sold the technology to SigmaTel) since they made some of the best solid state MP3/WMA players. I'm listening to the lastest TWIT cast on my old S30S as I write.
Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" will probably cool the player market as users discover they they no longer control the music on their own players. The days of MP3 (which is inherently DRM free) are near an end. D&M could read the writing on the wall and decided to get out of that market before they lost a ton of money in it. So long Rio.

[SeizeCTRL]

MP3s Will Live

I don't see MP3s being replaced anytime soon. The format is too wide spread, to easy to use and embedded in ungodly ammount of applications. It's here to stay for many many years.

[Arbalest05]

MP3 player market in trouble soon?

It is sad to see RIO call it quits (D&M has sold the technology to SigmaTel) since they made some of the best solid state MP3/WMA players. I'm listening to the lastest TWIT cast on my old S30S as I write.
Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" will probably cool the player market as users discover they they no longer control the music on their own players. The days of MP3 (which is inherently DRM free) are near an end. D&M could read the writing on the wall and decided to get out of that market before they lost a ton of money in it. So long Rio.

[SeizeCTRL]

MP3s Will Live

I don't see MP3s being replaced anytime soon. The format is too wide spread, to easy to use and embedded in ungodly ammount of applications. It's here to stay for many many years.