Without goals you can't score. You should remember that having goals is a good thing, having goals that can't be achieved is a bad thing, your doomed to fail before you start.
Having discovered the market was stagnant, and gotten over the shock of how poor things had become we perked up. The sudden realisation that you've got a blank canvas is really quite refreshing.
The second half of March and most of April were sent brainstorming, trying to put together a blue print design incorporating all of the functions, features, gizmo's and widgets we could think of that would be desirable in an MP4 player. These covered the norm, music, video, camera etc. and the darn right mad. Whoever thought of putting TV and radio in these devices needs shooting. Its bad enough getting a stable signal at home let alone whilst your on the move. Never the less all went into the melting pot.
At the end of April the day of reckoning came. It was time to pick the baseline functions and features for the first generation of the media box. This was tougher than expected. After all our aim was to wow the public with an all singing and all dancing piece of MP4 player wizardry. We discarded the ideas that were doomed to fail, out went the microwave and dishwasher function, we decided the power requirements for these could be restrictive, after all there is only so much room for batteries. The MP4 player blue print was created, agreed and signed off. We had our goal, and yes it could be achieved.
- Number 1 on the list was functionality. Its great having a 32GB MP4 player, fully loaded with a good selection of music and video, off you go on you travels to find out your battery is dead within 4 hours. You should have brought a 4GB MP4 player and saved yourself some money. Therefore top of the list was power budget. We had to make sure that the battery could sustain whatever we put in the box for at least 10 hours, no 12 hours, no 14 hours. We settled on 18 hours continuous video play. Why, because we could and nobody else was getting near this.
- Number 2 on the list was usability. An MP4 player should be easy to use, its as simple as that. You shouldn't need a stylus if you go for a touch screen MP4 player, these only get lost or used to clear away excess ear wax. The screen should be big enough so that you don't end up with a permanent squint after watching 10 minutes of video. The navigation should be straight forward, easy to understand and even easier to use.
- Number 3 was design, the sex appeal. Now number 1 and number 2 above help with this. Your case can only be as small as the sum of the contents. This is why as MP4 players get smaller so does the battery life. Yes battery technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last 3-5 years but not to the point where you can power a car from a watch battery. We went for a simple soap box design, nice to touch, pleasing to the eye and easy to plant in your pocket. No cheap shiny plastic trim that falls off after a week, no silly bits and bobs stuck on with double sided sticky tape. Just plain, clean lines, honest design.
Now that the 3 fundamentals were in place it was time to look at the hardware to make it all happen.
Tune is soon for the next instalment of an MP4 Player range launched.
(Quick note for Steveoath. If your Mac will detect a standard USB device then your cool with a media box)
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