Cowon

Cowon Systems, Inc. (simply known as Cowon) is a South Korean consumer electronics and software corporation. Established in 1995, the company’s initial focus was software development and microelectronics, specializing in speech synthesis and speech recognition technology.[3] In 2000, with the introduction of the iAUDIO CW100, Cowon expanded into the portable media player industry,[3] which is now the core of their business.

Cowon Systems, Inc.
코원시스템
Public
Traded asKOSDAQ: 056000[1]
IndustryConsumer electronics
Computer software
Online services
Cell phone accessories
FoundedApril 1995[1]
FounderPark Namkyu
Jung Jaewook
HeadquartersSeoul, South Korea[1]
Area served
South Korea, United States, Japan, India
Key people
Park Namkyu (president)[1]
Products
Services
RevenueKRW 121.2 billion (2010)[2]
KRW 9.1 billion (2010)[2]
KRW 7.4 billion (2010)[2]
Total assetsKRW 72.4 billion (2010)[2]
Number of employees
193[1]
SubsidiariesJetAudio, Inc.
LIAAIL idea & art
WebsiteCOWONGLOBAL.com
www.jetaudio.com
eng.liaail.com
Cowon
Hangul
코원시스템
Revised RomanizationKowon Siseutem
McCune–ReischauerK’owŏn Sisŭt’em

In 2010, Cowon was ranked number one in the PMP category of Japanese Management Association Consultants’ Global Customer Satisfaction Competency Index,[4] and in 2011 it was ranked number one in the same organization’s Global & Great Brand Competency Index.[5]

In the west, Cowon is most well known for its iAUDIO range of portable media players, which has resulted in many people incorrectly referring to the company as “Cowon iAUDIO” or simply “iAUDIO”.

Products
Main article: List of Cowon products

In its marketing, Cowon makes distinctions between “MP3 players” and “portable media players”, where the latter are larger and have a greater focus on video playback. The categories differ slightly between the Korean and the global homepage—for example, on the Korean homepage, the Cowon X7 and X9 are listed under “PMP”, while on the global homepage, they are both listed under “MP3”.

All Cowon products are produced domestically in South Korea.

MP3 players

LIAAIL products

Cowon’s LIAAIL division, founded in 2011, focuses on personal audio and cell phone accessories. Among its products can be found:

  • Earphones
    • Cowon EM1
    • Cowon EF1
    • Cowon XE1
    • Cowon CE1
    • Cowon SE2
    • Cowon BT2
  • Cell phone cases
    • Bird Case
    • Tree Case
    • Leather Case
    • Jelly Case
  • Cell phone screen protectors

Other products
  • Cowon AD1, car camera released in 2012
  • Cowon AC1, car camera released in 2012
  • Cowon W2, Windows 7-based ultra-mobile PC released in 2010, available in 60 and 80 GB models
  • Cowon W2 SSD, Windows 7-based ultra-mobile PC equipped with a solid state drive, released in 2010, available in a 32 GB model
  • Cowon L3, GPS navigation device and in-car entertainment system released in 2009
  • Cowon N3, GPS navigation device and in-car entertainment system released in 2007

Discontinued products

Portable media players

JetEffect

Each Cowon player is equipped with a set of software sound enhancement technologies collectively referred to as JetEffect. The latest version of JetEffect, JetEffect 5, was introduced with the release of the Cowon Z2 Plenue.

JetEffect competes with products such as Sony's DSEE, Samsung's DNSe and the SRS technologies found in products by iriver and Samsung, as well as in products by HTC and HP, where they are branded as "Beats Audio".

Features

In its latest iteration, JetEffect contains the following sound effects and enhancements:

  • Five-band equalizer
  • BBE+
    • BBE+
    • BBE Mach3Bass
    • BBE 3D Surround
    • BBE MP Enhance
  • Special Effects

In JetAudio

History
  • JetEffect 2.0
  • JetEffect 3.0
  • JetEffect 5

Software

Computer software
Main article: JetAudio
  • JetAudio, media player application for Microsoft Windows first released in 1997
  • JetVideo, video player application for Microsoft Windows with features which partially overlap with those of JetAudio. Like JetAudio, it relies on external codecs (such as those included in the K-Lite Codec Pack) for some of its data decoding.

Android apps
  • JetAudio for Android
  • JetVD

JetVD is an Android application for downloading videos from YouTube in a wide selection of formats. It was first introduced to users of the Cowon D3 Plenue with the upgrade to firmware version x.55. An online version of JetVD, called JetToy, exists in beta stage.

Other software

Other software developed by Cowon includes the iAUDIO LDB Manager, a small application for tagging music files with timecoded lyrics displayable on Cowon media players as well as in JetAudio.

Cowon also offers a number of freeware utilities, including JetCast, JetMailMonitor and JetToolBar. All of the above are available for free download from the JetAudio website.[6]

Cowon’s ultra-mobile PCs W2 and W2 SSD come with JetToolbar pre-installed.[7]

See also

References
  1. "COWON SYSTEMS, Inc". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  2. "COWON SYSTEMS, Inc". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  3. "COWON SYSTEMS, Inc". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  4. "COWON SYSTEMS, Inc". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  5. "COWON SYSTEMS, Inc". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  6. http://www.jetaudio.com/download/ JetAudio Download page
  7. Cowon W2 product page Archived 2012-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
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