In the late 1990s, before Singapore was known as a global center of digital innovation, Sim Wong Hoo had a theory about what was holding his country back.
mr. Sim, who went on to become the city-state’s first tech billionaire, called it the “No U-Turn Syndrome,” or NUTS. In the US, he said, cars could turn around anywhere unless a sign told them not to. But in Singapore, drivers wouldn’t dare if it wasn’t expressly allowed. The “no rule, no do” mentality kept Singaporeans from thinking outside the box, he said.
So he wrote some new rules. mr. Sim was raised in a poor household by illiterate parents before founding a startup that revolutionized computer audio and inspired a generation of Asian entrepreneurs. Many admirers still call him “Singapore’s Bill Gates.”
The company Mr. Sim founded, Creative Technology Ltd.
, launched a component called the Sound Blaster in 1989 that brought personal computers to life with rich and complex audio, even allowing PCs to replay and transform the human voice. His follow-up act was a portable MP3 player that reached stores almost two years before Apple Inc.’s
iPod. His company eventually fell into the midfield of a fast-changing tech sector, but its early success had a lasting legacy.
mr. Sim died in Singapore on Jan. 4 at the age of 67. His family, which confirmed his death, did not disclose the cause.
mr. Sim’s corporate success was hard-won. Born in Singapore in 1955, when it was still under British rule, Mr. Sim grew up in a village in an area now called Bukit Panjang with 10 siblings. Their father died when he was young, and his mother struggled to support their large family by selling whatever seasonal fruits grew on the unkempt 1-acre farm she leased for about $15 a year. When not in school, the young Mr. Sim helped her sell eggs at a local market for about 1 cent apiece.
In his 1999 book, “Chaotic Thoughts From the Old Millennium,” Mr. Sim described himself as a weird child who made his own toys and board games because he couldn’t afford to buy them. Around age 11, he discovered what he called his first love: a harmonica one of his sisters had given him for his birthday. He studied electronic engineering at Singapore’s Ngee Ann Technical College, now called Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and graduated in 1975. He was an average student who was often bored by his classes, more interested in the school’s harmonica troupe.
mr. Sim’s passion for music inspired his greatest engineering innovations. After founding Creative Technology in 1981, he spent years trying to find his footing in the emerging PC market. He developed two computer models, the Cubic 99 and the Cubic CT, but it wasn’t until he focused on fine-tuning audio that he made his mark on the industry. In 1987, his team developed an early version of the Sound Blaster called the Creative Music System, and he was so sure of its success that he moved to the US the next year and vowed not to return until he sold 20,000 of them. He succeeded.
When he unveiled the new and improved Sound Blaster at the 1989 Comdex computer convention in Las Vegas, his booth was so packed that it drew the attention of musician Michael Jackson, who had dropped in unannounced. mr. Jackson was so captivated by the product that he stayed at the booth for almost 30 minutes, Mr. Sim wrote in his book. “The Sound Blaster took the world by storm,” he wrote.
Creative Technology quickly became the world’s leading supplier of sound cards. Within a few years, Mr. Sim estimated that the Sound Blaster had about 60% market share. In 1992, it became the first Singaporean company to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. mr. Sim attributed a plunge in earnings around 1996 to an oversupply of CD-ROMs that drove computer pricing down, and around that time he began plotting his next big move.
In 1999, Creative Technology unveiled the Nomad, an MP3 player about the size of a portable CD player, later followed by several similar products including the smaller and more versatile Zen. Early models could store hundreds of hours of music and sold for a few hundred dollars each. Sales were going well until a formidable challenger came along: the iPod. Market analysts said Creative Technology was outplayed by Apple, which invested heavily in sleek design and global marketing.
Creative Technology didn’t go down without a fight. In 2006, the company sued Apple for patent infringement, claiming it owned the rights to an interface that let users navigate a menu organized by artists, albums and songs. They settled later that year. Apple agreed to pay Creative Technology $100 million.
mr. Sim served as Creative Technology’s chairman and chief executive officer until his death. Despite his success, friends and acquaintances say he lived a modest life, dressing in sports attire and slip-on sandals even at formal events, and regularly running marathons.
He gave generously to charities that support education, the arts and other causes.
mr. Sim never married and had no children.
Write to Feliz Solomon at [email protected]
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