It's official: Creative Zii Egg runs on Android

Donald Bell | Jul 29, 2009

The Creative Zii Egg in all its Android-loving glory. (Credit: Zii.com)

We knew Creative was up to something when that Zii Egg FCC application flew past us earlier this month, but we had no idea it would be this awesome, or this confusing. Turns out the Zii Egg (what an unfortunate name) is a multitouch, HD video-capable, dual camera (front and back) rival to the iPhone and iPod touch, running on Google's Android OS (see all the official specs over at Zii.net).

You can grab a 32GB model now for US$399, but don't expect it to be fully baked. Creative is announcing this as a "developer edition" in the hopes that the Android community will pick up the platform and run with it. I guess it takes a village to beat an iPhone.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that we may never actually see the Zii Egg released to consumers as an official Creative product. The company is looking to sell rebranded Zii Eggs directly to other manufacturers as an OEM product.

For a company that's been trickling out half-hearted products all year, it seems odd that Creative would make something with such unprecedented appeal, only to lob it to open-source developers and slap someone else's name on it. Then again, maybe it's smart enough to know it has made a product whose potential is beyond Creative's capabilities to execute. If this thing ultimately becomes a phone (all the ingredients are there), Creative is likely just being cautious about entering the mobile phone market as a newcomer.

Via CNET Crave | via DAP Review

Filed under: Handhelds, Music & Play
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Devlin

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Devlin says...
It looks too much like the 1st gen iPhone, only in a black silicone case.

Jul 29, 2009 14:20

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bizkid1990

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bizkid1990 says...
isn't it that on the FCC site, two Zii's surfaced? like one without the "EGG", and the other being the "EGG" (which is the one talked about here). I guess the one without the "EGG" might end up being the consumer version of the Zii, released by Creative.

I wanna buy one, =)

Jul 29, 2009 22:55

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ferdiei

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ferdiei says...
hey, they're selling this at a discount for bulk orders. maybe singapore-based or cnet bloggers should initiate a group-buy..hello michael tan, where are you?

Jul 29, 2009 23:15

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drone1212

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drone1212 says...
"Devlin says...
It looks too much like the 1st gen iPhone, only in a black silicone case. "

I think they are planning to sell the platform as OEM. So the casing design is more for illustrative purpose only. They are expecting manufacturers to put on their own casing and logo.

From the demo, the performance looks impressive. But a demo is a demo :D I am expecting that very soon you will see variants of this item by various OEM vendors flooding the market.

Glad to see that Creative is not laying around and play dead after being mopped the floor with by Apple in the MP3 market. It seems like they do have a seemingly viable answer to the iPhone.

Jul 30, 2009 16:38

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ferdiei

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ferdiei says...
you say iPhone? this one doesn't have cellular functionality yet#!? but this platform has the potential to kick iPod-touch' ass

Jul 30, 2009 20:14

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