They formed ReignCom, with Yang as CEO, originally as a semiconductor distributor, then decided to capitalize on the growing MP3 player market.

[2] The company's first iRiver product was the iMP-100, a portable CD player capable of decoding MP3 data files on CDs, released in November 2000.

iRiver sold later models with its own SlimX brand, billing them as the thinnest MP3 CD players in the world.

[12] The marketing of iRiver America was mostly spent on PR and brand partnerships, featuring celebrities such as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg.

[16] It also used adult film star Jenna Jameson[17] and an Audrey Hepburn lookalike[18] as spokesmodels promoting its products.

In 2005, the company decided to focus entirely on flash players like the H10, and the development of jukeboxes (except from the 20 GB version of the H10) was stopped as a result.

[16] The launch of Apple's iPod Shuffle hurt iriver sales and it dropped from the top ranking in flash-based players.

[16] ReignCom announced in May 2006 that it would adjust its focus toward hand-held mobile gaming[23] and other electronics, publicly reporting its intentions of quitting the PMP market.

[25] In its South Korean home market, iRiver once accounted for 50% of sales[26] and the company has bought ads claiming its products are a symbol of patriotism.

The Incheon International Airport shop features a large heart-shaped art piece, which represents the corporate "Heartbeat Philosophy" of "dedication to its customers".

The next year, until 2014, South Korean private equity firm Vogo Fund held a large stake in iRiver, which reported 5.5 billion won in profits on 206.8 billion won of sales,[29] working to improve the company's prospects as its MP3 player business has dwindled.

The brand expanded to other products including the Dicple series of electronic dictionaries in South Korea and the iRiver Story e-book reader.

[38] A nearly unique feature of some iriver players was the direct MP3-recording capability with selectable bitrate of internal (FM, microphone) and external (line) sources.

Users can quickly jump back and forth within tracks by a certain time interval, set from three to 180 seconds in current models.

[40] SonicBlue removed this feature from its rebranded Rio Volt models, causing some users to hack their players with iRiver firmware from other regions.

The company later released an official Firmware Updater that allows users to switch between the MTP and UMS interfaces.