For its first commercial deal, kannuu, Inc. of Dallas, TX (DEMOfall 07) will add its search technologies to Coby Electronics' future portable media devices, which will be in retail stores nationwide this summer.
In the uber competitive MP3 market, searching through large digital libraries is becoming more critical. kannuu-enabled Coby MP3 players will provide a "find" function and eliminate lengthy searches or scrolls through multiple files, the companies say. kannuu claims its search technology is three times faster than an Apple iPod, regardless of the size of a player's digital media library.
kannuu's technology is based on its Partial Word Completion™ process. The user sees four characters that correspond with the MP3 player’s control pad. The user inputs the desired file name by choosing from the displayed letters with up, down, left, right, and center selection. A four-way default controller eliminates the need to search by artist, track, album, or genre alone. Instead, all matching results are presented with one query alleviating the tedious “track-back” to superfluous menus and settings. kannuu says its combined browsing and searching means Coby users won't have to deal with an A-Z search, or be limited by an auto-complete function.
Kenji Higa, R&D Manager for privately-held Coby Electronics Corp. of Lake Success, New York, in a statement said, “kannuu’s technology helps deliver an effortless search experience, which is perfectly ‘in tune’ with our mission to provide consumers with affordable and easy-to-use CE products. The seamless integration of kannuu’s new software will help deliver the portable music experience with convenience and simplicity, so users can spend more time enjoying their favorite digital content and less time searching for it.”
Coby initially will add kannuu technology to its top MP705 player, which is video-capable and "with potential integration into other models later," a Coby spokesperson said. Coby said initially its kannuu-enable MP3 player will be sold nationally at Circuit City and Sears retail stores in Q3. Coby devices also sell at many other stores, including the Best Buy and Wal-Mart chains. Coby recently added new features to its MP3 player including touchpads, touch screens, and better video capability.
“With the proliferation of digital content comes the growing need to simplify and accelerate the time-consuming task of searching on the go," said Sean-Michael Daley, CEO of kannuu, which employs 10 people. "Our unmatched lookup technology will give music fans everywhere a better, faster and easier way of accessing their digital libraries, and we are pleased to help Coby ‘turn up the volume’ for consumers.”
kannuu's technology works on any device where only a four-way directional keys are needed including mobile telephones, TV set-top boxes, and GPS devices. The company says it is working on other details to incorporate its search-and-browse technology on different types of devices. Its main competitor is T9 QWERTY keyboards, whose word-completion technology often requires a steep learning curve.
