Ron Jones, co-founder and chairman of SongPro Inc., the maker of a computer device he invented that turns Nintendo’s GameBoy into a digital audio and video player, has died. He was 48.
Mr. Jones, whose company is the first black-owned portable digital multimedia device manufacturer, died of gastric cancer Feb. 2 in Los Angeles.
Mr. Jones, who had developed a way to reprogram the codes of inkjet printers to enable desktop computers to access and produce silk-screen-quality printing, among other innovations, came up with his idea for transforming Nintendo’s GameBoy into a portable music player in 1999.
But in 2000, six months after forming what then was called SongBoy.com with business development professional Mark Bush, the two high-tech entrepreneurs found themselves the center of media attention after Nintendo of America Inc., denying their request to become a licensee, filed a lawsuit alleging infringement of its intellectual property rights.
“You can go to school to learn how to play the corporate game, but the powers that be try to stop you at every turn,” Mr. Jones said at the time.
Rev. Jesse Jackson helped bring the two sides together for a meeting.
In August 2000, the two companies reached a settlement in which Mr. Jones and Bush agreed to change the company and product’s name and Nintendo granted them a license.
The renamed SongPro Inc., which is based in Los Angeles, began selling its device in December 2002.
“Ron was the kind of guy who was just completely innovative,” Bush told the Los Angeles Times last week. “He was always coming up with ideas to enhance something and make things better.”
A South Central Los Angeles native, Mr. Jones moved to Pacific Grove, Calif., when he was 12. He studied engineering at Monterey Peninsula College and San Jose State University before dropping out to work for Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Data General Corp.
In the mid-1980s he founded Colossal Graphics, a large-format printing and desktop publishing company.
Nine years later, the trade publication Micro-Publishing News named him Innovator of the Decade for his advances in large-format printing.
Mr. Jones, whose other inventions include electronic feeders for fish and animals, also was recognized as the 1989 Minority Entrepreneur of the Year by the New York Interracial Council for Business Opportunity and the 1997 National Black Engineer by the Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers.
