Sim Wong Hoo

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Sim Wong Hoo (born 1955; Chinese: 沈望傅) is the CEO and Chairman of Creative Technology,^[1] a pioneer of computer sound systems, a designer and manufacturer of products for personal computers and personal digital entertainment devices.

1 Early life and career
2 Success and failures
3 Achievements and recognition
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

He was born in Singapore and graduated from the Electrical & Electronic Engineering faculty of Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. In 1 July 1981, Sim Wong Hoo with his school friend Ng Kai Wa set up shop in Pearl Centre in Singapore. He got his start running Creative as a computer repair shop. While doing this he developed an add-on memory board for the Apple II computer that they sold as well. Later, Creative started creating customized PCs adapted for the Chinese language which included enhanced audio capabilities so that the device could produce speech and melodies. The success of this audio interface led to the development of a stand-alone sound card named Sound Blaster that Creative marketed. Sound Blaster was very successful and has been used as a standard of comparison for sound cards.

[edit] Success and failures

Creative and Sim Wong Hoo achieved its greatest success with the landmark Sound Blaster line of audio card products. It was among the first dedicated audio processing card to be made widely available to the general consumer. Monaural Sound Blaster cards were introduced in 1989, and stereo cards followed in 1992 (Sound Blaster Pro). Wavetable MIDI was added with the 16-bit Sound Blaster AWE32 and AWE64 with 32 and 64 voices. In 1998, Sound Blaster Live! was the first PCI-based sound card. Over the years, the Sound Blaster line has been greatly enhanced to provide 3D audio and home theater quality sound directly from a PC.

Creative dominated the PC audio market and remains unchallenged by a major competitor since the late 1990s which saw a legal tussle between Creative and Aureal Semiconductor.^[2] A series of lawsuits was filed by Aureal in 1998 which alleges infringements over various technology patents such as PCI audio and 2D/3D positional sound APIs. Creative responded by counter suing with a series of lawsuits for false advertising and various other claims. The situation was resolved when Creative acquired Aureal's assets in September 2000 for USD $32 million dollars.

One notable failure in the mid 1990s was Creative's venture into the CDROM market. Creative was forced to write off nearly USD $100 million dollars in inventory when the market collapsed due to a flood of cheaper alternatives.^[3]

Creative first entered the portable audio player market in 2000 with the launch of the Creative NOMAD Jukebox. Creative remained a serious competitor in the portable audio player market until the entry of Apple Computer with the iPod. In November 2004, Creative Labs announced a $100 million marketing campaign to promote their digital audio products, including the ZEN range of MP3 players.^[4]

Creative applied for U.S. Patent 6,928,433 on January 5, 2001 and was awarded the patent on August 9, 2005.^[5] The ZEN Patent was awarded to Creative for the invention of user interface for portable media players. This opened the way for potential legal action against Apple's iPod and the other competing players.

Creative took legal actions against Apple in May 2006. In August, 2006, Creative and Apple entered into a broad settlement,^[6] with Apple paying Creative $100 million for the license to use the Zen patent. Creative will join the "Made for iPod" program which opens new opportunities for the company.

[edit] Achievements and recognition

At age of 45, Sim Wong Hoo became the youngest millionaire in Singapore. He was also the first person to be named the Businessman of the Year^[7] twice, in 1992 and 1997. In 2002, he was named Person of the Year^[8] by the Singapore Computer Society in recognition of his contribution to the IT industry. Sim is widely considered to be the star entrepreneur of Singapore and he currently chairs Singapore's Technopreneurship 21 Private Sector Committee.

In 1999, Sim Wong Hoo released a book entitled "Chaotic Thoughts From The Old Millennium".^[9] He also coined and made famous the term "No U-turn syndrome" to describe the social behaviour of Singaporeans having a mindset of conformity to higher authorities before taking any action.