Quote:
Sigmatel is a pretty big player right now - something like 80% of flash players in the world use their chips, and no doubt they want the hard drive market now. The empeg codebase will get a very wide audience which will be nice, but I fear they are a supplier to a commodity market and I won't hold my breath to see the wonderful innovations I know the guys in Cambridge are capable of.

That's one way of looking at it; another would be that Sigmatel is a chip supplier, and wants to sell chips. Restrictions that have previously bound Rio's product directions - like brand direction, capturing shelf space in Best Buy and Circuit City, and what sales and marketing feel comfortable bringing to the market - don't apply to a core IP supplier like Sigmatel.

There are literally hundreds of companies basing their products on Sigmatel's IP who, for example, may feel less bound by things like the AHRA than Rio did when considering whether to offer, say, some cool player to player transfer technology. Everyone in the market is looking for an edge, and we've got thousands of the damn things here

Just because they have (IMO) the flash market very nicely tied up doesn't mean they don't have designs on lots of other markets - and the know-how & cash to do it.

Hugo
(who, obviously, is posting in a personal capacity and not for his shiny new employer )