If Rockbox can make it work, why can't SanDisk?

It seems bizarre to me that my SanDisk ClipZip will work right when I install a third-party firmware, but not when I use SanDisk’s own firmware. For example, playlists work perfectly if I’m using Rockbox, but pretty much not at all if I use SanDisk’s firmware, no matter what version I try. External cards still work fine in my device if I’m using Rockbox, but not at all if I’m using SanDisk’s firmware. I can add a file or two to my device without having to re-load the entire storage if I’m using Rockbox, but if I’m using SanDisk, the device has to look again at every single track.

The simple solution would be to just use Rockbox, but I’d like to be able to sync subscription files with Rhapsody, and that’s the one thing I can’t do with Rockbox. But it does raise the question, why are the people who are designing Rockbox as a hobby able to get this device to work right when SanDisk can’t?

I have often wondered this myself…

Because 1.) there’s many, many more people working on Rockbox as a hobby or the fun of it, and 2.) they’re working many, many hours on it for no pay. It’s a simple business economics issue. SanDisk couldn’t afford to pay its developers for all the hours that goes into the development and constant tweaking that Rockbox gets.

Still, it seems Rockbox proves that there is a way to make the product do the things SanDisk promises (manage playlists, read micro-SD cards, for example). It makes it all the more frustrating that SanDisk still hasn’t taken the time to get its product to live up to its promises, when clearly there is a way to do it.

I don’t know exactly what your problems are, but mine manages and plays playlists, and reads external memory cards just fine. No problems at all. And I’m not using Robcklbox on it, just the OF (original firmware).

@tapeworm wrote:

Because 1.) there’s many, many more people working on Rockbox as a hobby or the fun of it, and 2.) they’re working many, many hours on it for no pay. It’s a simple business economics issue. SanDisk couldn’t afford to pay its developers for all the hours that goes into the development and constant tweaking that Rockbox gets.

Sorry, but, and with the greatest of respect:  I just don’t buy that.  SanDisk is an industry leader and has great resources.  It should be able to get things as right as anyone, if not significantly beyond.  It just takes some resources and dedication (and presumably, not even äll that much, now at the 4th generation of Clip . . .).

@miikerman wrote:

It just takes some resources and dedication . . .

Resources and dedication = $$$.

Yes, they could do all the things mentioned (plus much, much more) IF . . . money were no object. But money in business is ALWAYS an object. Would you like to pay $200 (or more) for an mp3 player or $60?

If I understand correctly, a lot of the Sport development was outsourced. Sandisk is a hardware company that makes flash memory, not really a software company. They probably have very few engineers to work on firmware.

@tapeworm wrote:


@miikerman wrote:

It just takes some resources and dedication . . .


Resources and dedication = $$$.

 

Yes, they could do all the things mentioned (plus much, much more) IF . . . money were no object. But money in business is ALWAYS an object. Would you like to pay $200 (or more) for an mp3 player or $60?

@tapeworm wrote:


@miikerman wrote:

It just takes some resources and dedication . . .


Resources and dedication = $$$.

 

Yes, they could do all the things mentioned (plus much, much more) IF . . . money were no object. But money in business is ALWAYS an object. Would you like to pay $200 (or more) for an mp3 player or $60?

And, how much money has SanDisk made off the Clip line, as well as related accessories such as memory?

Sorry, but at the 4th generation of the same line , not much work should be needed at all.  Take what was done before, and add improvements and enhancements.  At this point, relatively little engineering should be needed–heck, as I’ve said before, have the company’s summer interns do it, good and fun for all.

(And yes, I’d be happy to pay $200 for a great player.  My iRiver iHP-140, an early iPod competitor, matched the then iPod price of $500.  No reason there can’t be a happy medium, where an iPod Classic still is going for $250.) 

@saratoga wrote:
If I understand correctly, a lot of the Sport development was outsourced. Sandisk is a hardware company that makes flash memory, not really a software company. They probably have very few engineers to work on firmware.

Perhaps that explains things, at least in part.

My mind keeps on going back to the old and true saying:  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it . . . .

I think they wanted to switch to a less expensive SOC, hence they paid someone to port parts of the Clip series firmware to the new hardware. From their point of view the old devices were broken in that they were more expensive to make.

It probably does not make sense for them to do anymore than the bare minimum to keep the series going.  They sell each unit for only slightly more than the cost of making it, and the software is largely an afterthought.

I guess it depends, in part, on one’s corporate and personal philosophies . . . .

Love and creativity can do things that money cannot.  Avatar (the TV series first story), furniture I have seen refinished in Ireland, and the movie, “step into liquid” are proof.