may the force be with you

02:00 AM Oct. 02, 2005 PT

Consumer electronics manufacturer Neuros Audio is tapping the open-source community to convert its upcoming portable media player from iPod road kill into a contender.

This could be a stroke of genius. Open-source Linux has taken on Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system, and Mozilla has challenged the ubiquitous Internet Explorer web browser. In the same way, open source would seem suited to breaking Apple Computer's digital music stranglehold.

Then again, Neuros' strategy could just as easily turn out to be an empty publicity stunt.

Given the stiff competition in the personal video player market, it is probably way too late for Neuros' open-source project to offer any tangible benefits or innovations before the device's release early next year, said Richard Doherty, principle analyst for research firm Envisioneering.

"It's like saying, 'All of the boats have left, what can we do? Let's just open source to raise ourselves above the noise level,'" Doherty said. "There is very little innovation left. And right now any innovation only belongs to a half a dozen companies."

To get the ball rolling, Neuros recently opened up the firmware code for its Neuros 442 portable media player, which is set to launch in January.

Company founder and CEO Joe Born conceded that the vast majority of open-source software and hardware projects never amount to anything, but said the Neuros 442 development effort is different.

"Most open-source projects do fail because they typically don't have full-time employees, but only a few volunteers who a lot of times are kids," Born said. "We have our own internal engineers and are using open source as a tool to hopefully do some debugging and experimentation."

Neuros' hardware design is complete, comprising a Texas Instruments dual-core digital signal processor, a 3.6-inch, 65,000-color TFT display and a 40-GB hard drive for recording video from a TV or home entertainment system.

But the company has left a little something -- mostly user interface tweaks -- for the volunteers.

Open-source geeks might not represent the typical consumer, demographics-wise. But hackers don't like to waste time with a clumsy user interface. Just like other consumers, they want a minimum of fuss when they access advanced features, such as transferring files over Bluetooth with the latest Nokia phone or establishing a Wi-Fi connection with a Hewlett-Packard iPaq -- especially if they've spent hundreds of dollars on the latest and greatest device.

"According to a survey we conducted, the greatest concern hackers have is the user interface," said Born.

Born hopes to tap that frustration, as well as the creative drive that spawned a slew of iPod hacks even in the face of Apple's hostility to independent hackers.

"There are open-source projects with the iPod, and Apple has done everything it can to stop them," said Born. "But (the hackers) have still done interesting things."

Doherty said he's skeptical anything interesting will come out of the project. The open-source development model may have worked two years ago, he said, but it's doomed at a time when building a portable media player is as easy as putting together a PC.

"I can go to over a dozen chip vendors that offer a reference design that can place MPEG-4, MP3 and .wav files on a personal video player," he said. "So what is my advantage unless I have a brand like Creative, Apple or Sony?"