Cowon Systems, Inc. (simply known as Cowon) is a South Korean

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

corporation. The company’s initial focus was software development and

microelectronics Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-s ...

, specializing in speech synthesis and

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the ...

technology. In 2000, with the introduction of the iAUDIO CW100, Cowon expanded into the portable media player industry, which is now the core of their business. In 2010, Cowon was ranked number one in the PMP category of Japanese Management Association Consultants’ Global Customer Satisfaction Competency Index, and in 2011, it was ranked number one in the same organization’s Global & Great Brand Competency Index. 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.” Outside the domestic market, Cowon iAUDIO's sales and market share have always been minuscule - however, it gained a certain niche market and retains a loyal following from fans and enthusiasts.

Products

In its marketing, Cowon distinguishes between "

MP3 players A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...

" and "

portable media players A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...

," where the latter are larger and have a greater focus on video playback. The categories differ slightly between the Korean and the global homepage. All Cowon products are produced domestically in South Korea.

MP3 players

* Cowon M2 (2014) *

Cowon E3 Cowon Systems, Inc. (simply known as Cowon) is a South Korean consumer electronics and software corporation. The company’s initial focus was software development and microelectronics, specializing in speech synthesis and speech recognition te ...

(2014) * iAUDIO 9+ (2013) * Cowon D20 (2013) * Cowon X9 (2012) * iAUDIO 10 (2011) * Cowon C2 (2011) * Cowon X7 (2010) * Cowon J3 (2010) * iAUDIO E2 (2009) * iAUDIO 9 (2009) * Cowon S9 (2008)

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 BT2 ** Cowon EM1 **Cowon EF1 ** Cowon XE1 **Cowon CE1 **Cowon SE2 **Cowon EM2 * 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 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

-based

ultra-mobile PC An ultra-mobile PC, or ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this d ...

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 A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...

, released in 2010, available in a 32 GB model * Cowon L3,

GPS navigation device A satellite navigation device (satnav device) is a user equipment that uses one or more of several global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to calculate the device's geographical position and provide navigational advice. Depending on the ...

and in-car entertainment system released in 2009 * Cowon N3, GPS navigation device and in-car entertainment system released in 2007

Discontinued products

* Cowon D20 * Cowon iAUDIO 10 * Cowon C2 * Cowon D3 Plenue * Cowon X7 * Cowon J3 * iAUDIO E2 * iAUDIO 9 * Cowon D2+ * Cowon S9 * Cowon D2 * Cowon iAUDIO 7

Portable media players

* Cowon G7 * Cowon T5 * Cowon Q7 Plenue * Cowon A5 Plenue * Cowon R7 * Cowon V5S * Cowon 3D * Cowon V5W * Cowon V5 * Cowon O2 * Cowon iAUDIO X5 * Cowon A3 * Cowon A2

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 The Cowon Z2 Plenue is an Android-based portable media player manufactured by Cowon Systems, Inc. Its release was announced on . In the year of its release, the Z2 was awarded the iF product design award. The Z2 is widely considered to be the ...

. JetEffect competes with products such as

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

's DSEE,

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

's DNSe, and the SRS technologies found in products by iriver and

and in products by

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

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 **

Reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...

** Stereo Enhance

In JetAudio

History

* JetEffect 2.0 * JetEffect 3.0 * JetEffect 5

Software

Computer software

* JetAudio, media player application for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

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

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

s (such as those included in the

K-Lite Codec Pack The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of audio and video codecs for Microsoft Windows DirectShow that enables an operating system and its software to play various audio and video formats generally not supported by the operating system itself. T ...

) for some of its data decoding.

Android apps

* JetAudio for Android * JetVD ''JetVD'' is an Android application for downloading videos from

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

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, calle
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

timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

d lyrics displayable on Cowon media players as well as in

JetAudio JetAudio is a shareware media player application for Microsoft Windows and Android that offers advanced playback options for a wide range of multimedia file formats. Initially released in 1998, JetAudio is one of the oldest extant media ...

. 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. Cowon’s

s W2 and W2 SSD come with JetToolbar pre-installed.Cowon W2 product page

References

External links

COWONGLOBAL.com

JetAudio (American homepage)

LIAAIL idea & art

JetToy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowon Companies based in Seoul Companies established in 1995 Consumer electronics brands Audio equipment manufacturers of South Korea Navigation system companies Portable audio player manufacturers Video surveillance companies South Korean brands