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SEOUL -- As more and more MP3 player makers improve their devices' external design, the user interface is becoming an important differentiating factor, the chief executive officer of one of the world's biggest MP3 player makers said Wednesday.

Joon Yang, CEO of South Korea's Reigncom, which produces players under the IRiver brand name, said that the exterior design of his company's devices used to make them stand out from the competition. But competitors have caught up on exterior design, pushing IRiver to focus on something else.

"It's hard to differentiate by design," Yang said in an interview at the SEK exhibition in Seoul on Wednesday. "We thought, 'Why do we need control buttons? Controls are ugly, so if it's possible to eliminate them and use the display [we should do that].'"

First Effort

The first results of this thinking can be found in the IRiver U10, which was announced on Monday and made its public debut on Wednesday.

The U10 does away with most of the control buttons found on typical MP3 players in favor of a pressure-sensitive front panel. The panel can be pushed in four areas, each at the middle of the panel's four sides, to control the device. The function performed by depressing each part of the panel changes depending on the menu, and the current functions are clearly shown on the display itself.

"This U10 contains the concept of future IRiver products," Yang said. Clear user interfaces that allow quick access to content will be key in the future, he said.

Looking at the MP3 player market, Yang predicted that the current fierce price competition between companies will ease later this year. He expects a compromise between the bigger players in the market to emerge as manufacturers work to maintain their profit margin.