Official announcement about 40GB Karma delay WHEN?

I was hoping that we would get official word about the delay of the Karma 40GB and accessories sometime this week. I really want to know Rio's plans with respect to the 40GB Karma as well as the accessories for their HD based MP3 players. I am holding off my purchase till I am reassured that Rio is committed to supporting and enhancing these devices. The software support is quite evident, but marketing needs to be onboard for a product to become successful.

Greetings!

I have posted a link to this thread and asked about it on the beta board. Hopefully, this will nudge marketing a bit.

As the announcement will include various information, including the status of the 40GB Karma, marketing is still working on the announcement and we should expect this soon.

My apologies for giving more specific time last week If it's any consolation, marketing did heed the public forum posts and remove 40GB Karma from Amazon. I looked around at other etailers (WalMart and others), and though they show 40GB Karma, they also show that it's 'out of stock.'

Thanks,

I hope an annnouncement comes soon. My decision on what portable to buy (or hold out for) is going to be determined by what marketing says.

Thanks for the update as it were.

I hate to bump my own thread, but there is a lot of chatter in the other boards (riovolution.com, rioworld.org) that the 40GB Karma is coming out in the next 2 weeks.

Why the conflicting information from various retailers? And why, more importantly, doesn't DNNA get their retailers in line by issuing a statement about the Karma 40? Most retailers still have preorders available on the 40. A little clarification is certainly needed ASAP.

I went ahead and purchased an iRiver iHP-120 partly because of the supposed delay of the Karma 40. If DNNA is planning to ship a 40GB Karma in the next 2 weeks, I am going to be really upset for the decision I had to make with the information at hand.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but if I were running a company just launching a new product line, I might want to wait until people had my first line of products in their hands and past their 30-day return period before I made an announcement about the next greatest thing. Would you want to hold onto your Karma 20 if you found out that a Karma 40/60/whatever was coming out very soon? I would call this move very intelligent and smart business.

The problem with that theory is that most already knew of, and were waiting for, the 40GB unit. We had seen it ages ago on the web site.

So I would just like to second (or third or fourth) matics. I too am holding off my purchase.

Another week and still no announcement. What seems to be the hold up? I really want DNNA to make some comments about their commitment to the Karma. The delay of the 40GB Karma has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I suspect that Rio Marketing feel that they have never announced a 40GB model - I believe that was certainly the case with the press release and all the official media coverage. While it did show up on the web site it was quickly removed. You'll note that all conversation on this BBS is entirely unofficial.

I think it is safest to assume that there is no 40GB product. Of course it may be widely believed that such a thing does exist at least in the lab, but if Rio have not even announced it yet I wouldn't hold out hope of seeing it in the near future. Ultimately of course it is retailer orders that determine whether a product is viable or not.

This has nothing to do with commitment (or lack thereof) to the Karma. Right now the Karma is a 20GB product, and Rio is very commited to selling and supporting that product.

As for other "exciting announcements" that were hinted at on here by a Beta tester, I'm not entirely sure what he was referring to. Look at what Rio have today in their product range and base your purchasing decisions on that. The Karma has only just launched and is certainly not going to change in any substantial way in the near future (except, of course, for regular firmware updates).

Rob

As for other "exciting announcements" that were hinted at on here by a Beta tester, I'm not entirely sure what he was referring to.

It was not a "beta tester" that I have been paying attention to, but rather Nanook, who is reputed to be an employee of Rio, who posted a "pending announcement" in this thread a couple of weeks ago:

As the announcement will include various information, including the status of the 40GB Karma, marketing is still working on the announcement and we should expect this soon.

I'm waiting to see if a larger one comes out, as I have more than 20 GB of music on my empeg and would love to have my full collection on a handheld.

-jk

Understood Rob. I have been waiting for that announcement too. I will stop waiting, and base my judgments solely on current offerings accordingly.

[edit, after talking with some people elsewhere about this]
> I suspect that Rio Marketing feel that they have never announced a 40GB model

I feel that is wrong. It was listed as coming soon at a couple of places, and some even had a pre-order for it. These places did not do this out of thin air, Rio must have told them something. The fact is that a huge number of people believe that it is coming, and regardless of what the official announcements are, they need to address this.

Dell is still listing and taking orders for the Karma 40.

Thanks for the update Rob.

Is there any chance of us poor souls in the UK getting our hands on the 20Gb model before Christmas?

Is there any chance of us poor souls in the UK getting our hands on the 20Gb model before Christmas?

That's still the goal, at least from online retailers. A full retail launch in Europe is likely to happen in the new year.

Rob

As for other "exciting announcements" that were hinted at on here

I think that was referring to the $50 price drop. The latest to reflect the new MSRP is J&R Music World, whose final price is $299.88 w/free UPS Ground shipping!

Another week, another bump. When will we get an official announcement on the Karma 40 and accessories for the Karma? It's been 3 weeks since there was mention that an official announcement would be made. With the number of thread views this topic has recieved, there are anxious people waiting for word.

I'm just sittin'here quietly... I wanted the 40Gb, for in the future (only have ~10 gigs of music now..) because I had thought the 40G was just behind the 20..

I set myself a date.. If I don't hear anything about the 40 by Jan 15th, I'll just cave in and get the 20.

Me.

flac files are big and 20Gb simply isnt enough when using flac files. I too am waiting to hear something about a 40GB player.

I'm not trying to be funny, but Rob has answered your post. Assume theres to be no 40gb anytime soon.

The bbs will be one of the first places to get the information, so harrassing Rob won't do any good.

I'm not trying to be funny, but Rob has answered your post. Assume theres to be no 40gb anytime soon.

The bbs will be one of the first places to get the information, so harrassing Rob won't do any good.

The intention of this post and it's follow-ups was never to harass. Nanook mentioned that there would be official word from DNNA Marketing with respect to the Karma 40GB as well as other information with respect to the MP3 player line. I was waiting for the 40GB Karma and finally settled for the 20GB due to the unofficial word that the 40GB was not forthcoming. At this point, I want to know if there is any plans for a play-through case and a remote control (options that I really want).

PhilipOHare, if you are stating that Rob's word is representative of DNNA Marketing and he is the official voice for such matters (I'm not sure what his duties are), I'll crawl back into my hole and stop asking for official word. I still wouild like to know what the marketing position is with respect to a case and remote.

I still wouild like to know what the marketing position is with respect to a case and remote.

If the marketing drones have two brain cells to rub together their response at this point will most likely be that the 40s and any other accessories only exist in your imagination. Rob is of course speaking less officially, I can't imagine that anybody would give an official word until the units have been produced and are in route to retailers. Anything else would be premature and risk some sort of lawsuit later on.

-Mike

It seems to me you want an official statement from an unofficial car stereo bbs.

I can't say that Rob is is representative of DNNA Marketing - in fact I'm sure he's not - but he still has all the information. He won't make any claims on this bbs though. You'll need to go to the official channels which isn't here.

"It seems to me you want an official statement from an unofficial car stereo bbs."

No, he was looking for a follow up to a message by nanook stating that there would be an official statement.

Any truth to the comment " Originally, Rio also planned to release a 40Gb version of the Rio Karma: the Rio Karma 40. Unfortunately, it now appears that the Karma 40 is on indefinite hold, due to problems sourcing the 40Gb hard drives from Hitachi."

Source

s/planned/hoped/ ??

...what's sad is that what you typed:

s/planned/hoped/

is absolutely no known language. Not English, Japanese, etc etc..

And yet probably everyone knew what you meant.

I'm giving 'em 20 more days before I crack and get a 20Gb.

Me.

is absolutely no known language.

Looks like 'sed' to me. I'll concede that it's no known natural language, though .

Looks like 'sed' to me. I'll concede that it's no known natural language, though .

Hmph. *I* knew what I meant.

Me.

Nothing like digging up an old thread!

When I was looking at the new updates for XP I saw one for WMP 10, went to find out more about the update. While searching I found this page of supported portable devices. 40GB Karma! Of course the link points to DNNA's website for the 20 GB. But don't ya think that WMP 10 page should be fairly new? Of course that doesn't mean MS knows anything!