Creative Zii EGG PMP Steps up Competition in Mobile Arena

Well the curtains are finally being drawn back on Creative's "Stem Cell Computing" platform. While the moniker brings to mind Daleks or the Borg, there's no earth shattering bio-organic-quantum-nano-computing going on. Wireless galore and standards compliant this iPhone killer could give Apple a run for their money. Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are built in and ready for use out of the box as well as up to 64GB of flash memory. The stem cell processor can deliver high quality video on it's 320x480 LCD screen and an impressive 1080p HD video output via connector. Music is a given. Support for other boutique functions such as text-to-speech are being touted as well on their Plaszma OS.

This is Creative's spin-off company Zii that's taking aim on the mobile device market that's evolving around the iPhone and Net-books. As Apple's app marketplace surges the development playground is strewn with broken glass. Objective-C isn't very popular and the development tools aren't quite mature. All the while Apple is holding all controls. The Zii promises some amazing multimedia hardware with a much more open back end system as well as support for Android, the Linux based phone OS. The Zii EGG PMP will likely be a loss leader in hopes that the flexible platform will turn into the x86 of mobile devices. Considering that the unsubsidized retail cost of the iPhone is still in orbit the $199 bare bones cost may actually gain this late entrant some ground. Still no solid word on any takers but competition has a marvelous side-effect of keeping prices down so good luck Zii.