Creative fixin' for Apple fight

Today's release of the new Zen Vision: M, which bears a striking resemblance from the latest iPod, comes with some pointed words from company boss about its patented interface.

Faced with a competitor that has almost completely overshadowed it in the portable media player market, Creative Technologies looks like it's fixin' for a legal battle with rival Apple.

Singapore-based Creative released its newest player today, the Zen Vision: M, and it bears a startling resemblance to the video-enabled iPod that Apple unveiled in October.

The Vision: M has a 30GB hard drive and 2.5-inch color screen, and touch control system below the screen, all identical features with the latest iPod except that the Vision: M opts for an oval scroll bar instead of the iPod's round one.

Apple, which owns 80 percent of the digital music player market, has yet to issue a statement about the striking similarities of the new player, but Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo appears ready for a legal showdown on a different piece of the competing devices.

He told the BBC News he plans to "pursue aggressively" a US patent the company garnered in August on a system used to navigate music on digital players. The US patent is for the interface within which songs are organized and navigated on a music player using a hierarchical system of three or more screens.

In London for the Vision: M launch, Sim didn't mention Apple specifically in the statement.

"We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system," he said. "This is something we will pursue aggressively. Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property."

He did take a few verbal jabs at the Apple juggernaut.

"We are focused on the technology. This is the key difference between a technology company and a branding company," he said. Sim also took a shot at Apple's use of its proprietary Fair Play digital rights management (DRM) technology, which restricts transfers of song files to non-Apple devices.

"We offer people the freedom to choose their video in a variety of different formats, and to get subscription music or download tracks from a number of different sites to their player," Sim said.

When Creative won the interface patent in August, it said it would apply to several competing products that use similar navigation systems, including Apple's line of iPods. The company had applied for the patent in January 2001.