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ENTER SOUND BLASTER
Sim felt amultilingual society like Singapore, needed amultilingual computer. His idea took
the formofCubic CT, amultimedia computer with enhanced graphics, built-in audio board,
Chinese operating system and fonts.Ateamof 10 members including Sim, worked day and
night to develop this PC. Sim still marvells about his extraordinary feat. The Cubic CT
entered the market with the slogan “Beyond Your Wildest Dreams.”...
SOUND BLASTER IS NOT FOREVER
In 1994, Creative Technology led the global sound card market with a 60%share.16Aztech
Systems, another Singapore-based company stood second.17 By 1994, the two had 75%
of the market. Sound Blaster was a success because Sim sensed what the market wanted
and introduced the product at the right time. This helped it to emerge as a de facto
standard for the PC industry. Its effective marketing and strong technical support for
users were the other critical success factors....
SOUND BLASTER: CHANGING TUNES
By 2003, themarket for Sound Blasterwas rapidly disappearing. The reasonwas the arrival
of the integrated audio. Most PCs came up with integrated audio. Sales of the audio cards
and audio chip, shrank to 27% in 12 months through September 30th 2003. By the end of
2002, Creative had lost $150million...
Understanding Sim Wong Hoo
SimWong Hoo was the 10th among 12 children born to a chicken-egg vendor,
who grew up in the kampongs.35 Left with no money for toys, young Sim
would amuse himself by playing around with ants and improvised board games.
Improvisations of this sort kindled his capacity for innovation and “his tendency
to color outside the lines"...
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