Note to Forum moderators/PR/anyone at Creative who will listen and A

Question

Dear Forum Moderators/PR punchbags,?It seems Creative doesn't mind continually taking punches from the general public, and the longer Creative waits, the more annoyed people are getting. We always hear the Creative moderators saying they are sending feedback up the corporate ladder, however we are yet to hear any form of decent news/updates on the X-Fi drivers which clearly have a multitude of issues. While I don't doubt the Creative moderators are doing their job, I (and i'm sure I speak on behalf of many others) expect to hear a decent reply from someone who has the authority to do so. We all paid good money for the product, and do not deserve to be ignored!?What do Creative have to say about the blatant ignorance of the existing "issue-ridden" X-Fi drivers for Vista? And what is Creative doing right now to rectify the issue? Why have so many good paying customers been left out in the dark for this long? And why do Creative continue to market the X-Fi as "Vista ready" when there is blatant evidence it is no where near "ready" for Vista?

Answer 1

Watching NASDAQ on tues told something of what was discussed here. Creatives main problem is trying to be all things to all people and insisting on in-house manufacture of their computer peripherals. While they may be able to control quality somewhat, their competition has the edge in cheaper labour. Note, the drastic cuts in R&D in the last 8 months. This is all relati'vely normal for companies this size. One other thing that is making hard for them to be competati've is being an american based company. However, doubtful this is going to bankrupt them, or negati'vely effect them in a way that they cannot shake off easily. Guaranteed, if and when drivers & software are released, so present gen cards work with vista, the very small (albeit vocal) community here on the forum will tone down the rhetoric. Creatives money is not made in retail, it's made in wholesale contracts to the likes of Dell for example, and 90% of all onboard sound chips have been Creative Labs and will likely continue to be. (note X-fi chips sold to makers?such as?azureus) This entire fiasco has been a lesson in consumer strategies as companies push and pull the marketplace to suit their manufacturing needs, not fill a void?of supply and demand as we would like it to be. The reality is Creative is under very little obligation to support these cards under vista, is it a good business decision? I dont think so. It sure would be nice if they has some respect for the retail customer. Some good old fashioned?PR would be nice here too. Will this sink them? Probably not. Would we like them to go bankrupt and send apology emails to all of us? Absolutely, nothing less. Is that reality? No. I simlpy won't put this much emphesis on my computer systems sound functions until I see what is being manufactured. And there are some really really good looking contenders right now. And several more to be released over the summer. In retrospect, this is a good thing Creative are doing by throwing the market wide open. This has been longed for, almost 8 years now. Don?t get me wrong, I still think this was and is a truly crappy thing they are doing, but in the long run, we win, becasue finally, we will have cards that rock, and people that care about the end user.Message Edited by scorpion_saga on 05-03-200703:30 AM