RioPort Inc. Tuesday announced that they have signed
a letter of intent to license its technology to Korea-based portable MP3 player
manufacturers Maycom Co., Ltd. and Unitech
Electronics Co., Ltd. for incorporation in
new device designs.
RioPor will supply its Audio Manager playback software and
media device manager (MDM) API technology to the companies. Additionally, RioPort will provide both companies with
design support for secure firmware upgrade modules for use in future
SDMI-compliant devices.
Maycom manufactures MP3 players that are marketed under several brand names
worldwide, including the I-Jam (North America) and the MERIT (Asia and
Europe). The first Maycom player to incorporate the RioPort Audio Manager
and MDM technology will be its MP280 model, expected to ship in summer 2000.
Unitech manufactures and distributes the Rome MP3 player, a cassette-like
device that allows consumers to download and listen to content using
headphones and traditional playback systems, such as home and car cassette
stereos.
“We are very pleased to be working with Maycom and Unitech to provide them
with advanced software and technology solutions for their new portable
players,” said Anthony J. Schaller, chief technology officer at RioPort. “Our
relationship with these two companies underscores RioPort’s leadership role
in providing infrastructure solutions that will ease the technology and
compatibility issues that have in the past created barriers to mass consumer
adoption of digital audio.”