iRiver, stylized IRIVER and formerly as iriver, is a South Korean consumer electronics division owned by Dreamus which markets music and other accessories in its domestic market.
The company, then officially known as ReignCom, was created in 1999 by seven former Samsung executives, initially releasing portable CD players and later widely known in the 2000s for a line of digital audio players and other portable media devices. In 2019, the company was rebranded as Dreamus.
History
In 1999, Duk-Jun Yang and Rae-Hwan Lee left Samsung Electronics, along with five colleagues. They formed ReignCom, with Yang as CEO, originally as a semiconductor distributor, then decided to capitalize on the growing MP3 player market. They decided to outsource manufacturing to AV Chaseway, in Shenzhen, China, and contract product design to INNO Design, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, California, while keeping R&D in-house.
The company's first iRiver product was the iMP-100, a portable CD player capable of decoding MP3 data files on CDs, released in November 2000. It and a later model, the iMP-250, were rebranded and sold by SONICblue in the United States under the Rio Volt name. iRiver sold later models with its own SlimX brand, billing them as the thinnest MP3 CD players in the world. By now, iRiver portable CD players had achieved high domestic popularity and were also popular elsewhere. iRiver was one of a number of South Korean companies who were dominating the worldwide MP3 industry in these early years.
2002–2005
In 2002, iRiver scrambled to develop its first flash memory player to meet demand from the U.S. Best Buy chain. This led to the release of their first DAP product, the iFP-100 "Prism" - named as such because of its distinctive shape designed by its design firm partner, INNO Design. By the end of the year, iRiver had already gained as much as 20% of the domestic market and was steadily increasing popularity in foreign markets. A year later, it was first to market with 512 MB and 1 GB flash players with its iFP-500 "Masterpiece" player. It had also completed its IPO at KOSDAQ, a Korean stock exchange. The company was also selling hard drive players to compete with the iPod: the iHP-300 followed by the H300.
iRiver rose to the No. 1 position in the global market of flash players.'Innovation became part of our lifestyle' THE KOREA HERALD, September 15, 2005 Its global market share overall was 14.1% in 2003, while Apple led with 21.6%. The marketing of iRiver America was mostly spent on PR and brand partnerships, featuring celebrities such as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg.
By 2004, iRiver had gained solid market share in the digital audio player market in both the United States and Japan, and sold a total of 2.8 million players worldwide, of which 1.7 million was in the overseas market. During this time, the company went through a rebranding, including changing the styling of its name from iRiver to iriver, and using a ruby-red themed logo in place of blue. It also used adult film star Jenna Jameson and an Audrey Hepburn lookalike as spokesmodels promoting its products.
In 2005, the company decided to focus entirely on flash players like the H10, and the development of jukeboxes (except from the 20 GB version of the H10) was stopped as a result. The launch of Apple's iPod Shuffle hurt iriver sales and it dropped from the top ranking in flash-based players. iriver adopted a new marketing strategy in 2005, attempting to grab mindshare from Apple. It referred to the U10 flash player as the thumb thing. This referred to users controlling their MP3 devices with their thumbs, just as they do their cell phones and text messaging devices."ReignCom Unveils MP3 Players." Korea Times, June 21, 2005. The company also announced plans for digital audio players featuring Internet telephony.
iRiver's U.S. unit, based in Vancouver, Washington, held 3.4% of the U.S. MP3 player market in 2005, according to IDC; this was down from a peak of 13%. The company targeted early adopters among American users as it tried to regain dominance of the category. It also opened sales divisions in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. iRiver's parent Reigncom made significant financial losses by the end of 2005.
2006–2010
ReignCom announced in May 2006 that it would adjust its focus toward hand-held mobile gaming and other electronics, publicly reporting its intentions of quitting the PMP market. It has also reported sluggish sales for its music player business, including a loss of 35.58 billion won (US$36.68 million) in 2005, compared with a net profit of 43.46 billion won in 2004.MP3 player maker ReignCom swings to loss in 2005. Yonhap, February 28, 2006 In its South Korean home market, iRiver once accounted for 50% of sales. Retrieved on 2013-12-09. and the company has bought ads claiming its products are a symbol of patriotism. It has also operated a small chain of iRiver Zone stores, with locations in Korea, Japan, and China. The Incheon International Airport shop features a large heart-shaped art piece, which represents the corporate "Heartbeat Philosophy" of "dedication to its customers". Its European market share had dropped to 0.4% in 2006, down from 1.3% the year prior, and it had also fallen in Japan and the US.
In 2006, the company had sales of 149.5 billion won and an operating loss of 54.4 billion won. The next year, until 2014, South Korean private equity firm Vogo Fund held a large stake in iRiver, which reported 5.5 billion won in profits on 206.8 billion won of sales, working to improve the company's prospects as its MP3 player business has dwindled.. Privateequitykorea.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-09. Deep losses followed in 2009 and 2010.
In May 2007, Reigncom announced a new division, Reigncom USA, to manage the iriver brand in the United States and help develop new products. The company also bought the Siren brand in Japan from A-MAX Japan, despite protests from Siren Inc. itself.
In 2009, its parent company renamed itself to iRiver. The brand expanded to other products including the Dicple series of electronic dictionaries in South Korea and the iRiver Story e-book reader.
2011–present The iRiver Story reader was released in 2010 and was followed by the Cover Story. The Story HD successor was launched in 2011 which was also iriver's first e-book reader in the American market. That same year, iriver launched its first Android smartphone and tablet in the domestic market.
iRiver was sold to SK Telecom in 2014.
In 2013, iRiver launched the premium brand of Astell & Kern. As the digital music player market had changed, Astell & Kern consisted of premium products instead of iriver's older conventional players.
In 2019, the iRiver company changed its name to Dreamus.
Products Digital audio players
iriver's products can all play MP3 and WMA audio files. Some units support text viewing, Ogg Vorbis audio files, Macromedia Flash, and/or BMP files. The company also supported Microsoft PlaysForSure, which allowed some products to support subscription-based music download services, including URGE, Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. It also let users disable its DRM functionality.
Many players support multilingual display. They support Winamp playlists and allow repeat, shuffle play and programmable functions. Several preset and one user-defined EQ settings are included, plus a built-in FM tuner. A nearly unique feature of some iriver players was the direct MP3-recording capability with selectable bitrate of internal (FM, microphone) and external (line) sources.
Most iRiver players include a unique feature called study mode. Users can quickly jump back and forth within tracks by a certain time interval, set from three to 180 seconds in current models. The option was designed to help people listening to recorded language lessons. SonicBlue removed this feature from its rebranded Rio Volt models, causing some users to hack their players with iRiver firmware from other regions.
Initially connecting devices to the computer for music transfer required the iRiver Music Manager. In later firmwares UMS is supported so that the computer's native file explorer could be used to transfer files. Iriver eventually dropped UMS support for the U10, T30, T20 and T10 models in favor of Microsoft's MTP. The company later released an official Firmware Updater that allows users to switch between the MTP and UMS interfaces.
Hard disk based iGP series iGP-100 (1.5 GB) USB 2.0 connectivity. Plays MP3, WMA, ASF, and Ogg Vorbis files. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery. Released in 2003. H/iHP series H10: (5 GB, 6 GB, 20 GB—except Asia), available in four different colors (red, blue, silver and grey), 16-bit color screen, can record from Radio, Internal Microphone (Voice) or Line-In (Line in only with extra cradle). The 5 GB and 6 GB models are around the size of the iPod mini and are composed mainly of aluminum. The navigation is done with a touchpad designed by iriver. These devices cannot play Ogg Vorbis files. PlaysForSure and UMS. iHP-100 series: (10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB) Voice, line in and FM recording. Optical in and out. Built in lithium-polymer battery. UMS. USB 2.0 connectivity. H300 series: (20 GB, 40 GB) PlaysForSure and UMS. Built in lithium-polymer battery. Transfer with certain Digital Cameras. Voice, line in and FM recording. Plays video with Korean firmware. USB 2.0 connectivity. E series E10: (6 GB)The term gigabyte (GB) has two possible meanings. Sometimes it means 10003 B (one billion bytes) and sometimes it means 10243 B (one gibibyte). The manufacturer does not specify which of the two is intended. Similar interface to that of the U10 series. The device also features a remote control for TV. PlaysForSure and UMS are supported. The device allows flash files to be played, videos and FM radio. It contains recording capabilities for both voice and FM radio. Released 2006 in Japan and South Korea, elsewhere in 2007.
Flash memory based
iFP series iFP-100 (Prism): (32 MB, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB) Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity (four-pin mini-B plug). Plays MP3, WMA and WAV files. Prism shaped. MTP (UMS upgradable). iFP-300 (Craft I): (64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB) Prism shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in, and FM recording. iFP-500 (MasterPiece I): (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) Soap bar shaped. USB 1.1 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Built in lithium-ion battery. Voice, line in and FM recording. iFP-700 (Craft II): (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 4 GB) Prism Shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording. iFP-800 (Craft II): (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) Prism-shaped with rounded edges. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording. iFP-900 (MasterPiece II): (256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) Soap bar-shaped. Color 1.2" LCD. FM tuner. Voice, line in and FM recording. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Built-in lithium-ion battery. iFP-1000 (Prism Eye): (256 MB, 512 MB) 0.3 megapixel digital camera built in, prism shaped, color screen. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Removable lithium-ion battery. N series - necklace type N10: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "medallion style" — worn hanging from the neck. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Released in 2004. N11: (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) "medallion style" — worn hanging from the neck. Features longer battery life than N10. USB 2.0 connectivity. UMS. Built in lithium-ion battery. OLED screen. N12: (1 GB, 2 GB) "medallion style" — worn hanging from the neck. Released in South Korea in 2006. N15 (Jewel): (2 GB, 4 GB) N20 N20S
T series - de facto successor of iFP series T5: 4 GB. T6 (Neon): 4 GB. Thin low-end MP3 player. It has a colour 1.8-inch 128×160 screen and light-up touch controls.