Sony to Compete with iPod

[MacRumors]

On Tuesday, Sony announced that in 2004 they would introduce versions of a music player for as low as $60 aimed at unseating the popular Apple iPod. With no details, it's unclear how competitive this low end player would be.

Of further interest, Sony detailed plans for upcoming Playstation Portable (PSP) devices which Sony claims "will be the Walkman of the future."

The upcoming portable gaming platform due by the end of 2004 will be multifunctional devices featuring games, music, videos, and communication abilities.

One recent Wired opinion column called for Sony to leapfrog the portable music player and embrace portable video players after having let Apple dominate the portable digital music player market. This initiative may partially fulfill that author's wishes.

Sony is felt to have been slow to embrace the digital audio market due to internal conflicts with their Music Division and concerns of losing revenue to digital piracy.

[Phil Of Mac]

Dell DJ, Samsung Y43u2819412...that's nothing. Now, the fight is on.

[JohnGillilan]

Up until the iPod, Sony dominated the portable music market. Frankly, I'm surprsied it has taken them so long to compete with Apple on this front. I'm confident that Sony will provide a great product, however, I am also confident in Apple's ability to remain competitive in a market that they virtually created. Bring it on Sony.

[tentimestwenty]

If Apple would just make a 2GB $100 iPod they'd kill every possible competitor including portable CD players.

[jhomayne]

Originally Posted by tentimestwenty

If Apple would just make a 2GB $100 iPod they'd kill every possible competitor including portable CD players.

i live for the day that one of these is released

or even one that i could just whack 50 songs on for a day

though i suppose the argument against this is that i could just get a current iPod and import a 50song playlist

hmmm

[ingenious]

Originally Posted by tentimestwenty

If Apple would just make a 2GB $100 iPod they'd kill every possible competitor including portable CD players.

id buy one

[neutrino23]

As far as the music player device is concerned Sony doesn't get it. iPod is not just a stand alone device. It is an extension of your computer and your CD collection (via iTunes) and it is an extension of your own created music (via Garageband) and it is an extension of a huge on-line music library (via iTMS). If Sony came out with a really well engineered player it would probably still fail because Sony doesn't seem to be supplying all of the other features that make iPod popular.

I also doubt that Sony will provide anything at low price. Historically, Sony products are fairly expensive. My own personal experience with them is that the quality was poor. I've spent around $10,000 on Sony goods and most of that no longer functions. The DAT deck still works (somewhat) after an out of warranty repair. I would be disinclined to buy another Sony product.

[spinko]

Originally Posted by tentimestwenty

If Apple would just make a 2GB $100 iPod they'd kill every possible competitor including portable CD players.

But Apple won't do that untill it's too late, as usual

[johnnyjibbs]

Originally Posted by spinko

But Apple won't do that untill it's too late, as usual

A 2GB $100 iPod would not only result in very little profit for Apple (despite using those new microdrives and huge volume sales) and would nicely kill the cool iPod brand in one fell swoop.

[jwgt]

Whatever Apple does in order to compete with Sony and others, they should make sure that you can change the ipod's battery without difficulties! The battery lasts only for about four hours and that just isn't long enough! That's why I love my Sony (1999) MD-Player: the battery still lasts for about 10-12 hours and with a replacement, I can stay mobile as long as I want to. That's why I'm not likely to buy the ipod.

[SonyorMacorPC]

Hi All,

Aren't you all a bunch of happy campers.

Anyway, just to let you know

- Sony is going to be providing an EMD service very soon (www.connect.com).

- Sony has decided not to enter the MP3 player market but decided to adapt its' MiniDisc tech to the current climate with a think called Hi-MD. Hi-MD removes the restriction origionaly placed on the Net MD {check out restrictions, analogue to computer transfer is now allowed and most importantly, 1gb worth of music (or docs, vids, software etc..) one to one cheap disc. The supplied software is now properly developed (finally) but needless to say it is not Mac compat. Check your local Sony site for details/

-The ATRAC format has been improved and I quote

"Short for "Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3 plus", ATRAC3plus is an enhancement of Sony's original ATRAC3 compression technology originally developed for the MiniDisc format. This latest version analyzes longer periods of audio signals to obtain more detail on input signals and also introduces a newly developed algorithm that achieves optimal bit allocation for a wide range of audio signals. The result is higher quality sound at higher levels of compression. Connect, Sony's new music service which is due to launch in the spring of 2004 will support the ATRAC3plus format."

No joke, it is really good I have tried it out, bit for bit it is far superior to the MP3 format.

So, i.Pod will not take over the market (not just because of price, the MiniDisc walkmans have a lots of other features which will make ideal for home users, jo soaps, song writers/bands, researchers, linguistic, students recording lectures and on and on).

Although, I am thinking about get virtual PC for my Mac, getting software is a pain in the ars* Lets face it a Windows world is much easer, (for the poorer mac owner of course).

John.

[MacQuest]

Originally Posted by tentimestwenty

If Apple would just make a 2GB $100 iPod they'd kill every possible competitor including portable CD players.

Hey, if [insert name of quality car manufacturer here] sold $10,000 cars, they would kill every possible competitor including General Motors and all of its subsidaries.

No it wouldn't. So they won't. Like everything else in life, quality costs.

Apple = Quality Control = Reliabilty = User Satisfaction.

[JohnGillilan]

Any thoughts as to how Sony could produce a rival product at such low cost?? How much storage do you suspect their device would have? Internal or removable storage?? Any word on a Sony sponsored download service? They co-founded PressPlay, which they sold to Roxio (now napster2). If they were to repartner with Napster, they would be competing with the Samsing player, which would be a serious conflict of interest. Any thoughts??

[doogle]

Its all good news. If SONY wants into the portable player market then Apple is more than vindicated and SONY's marketing people are saying the portable music market is BIG and going to get BIGGER. SONY is a real competitor (and possibly the only one capable) for Apple...Even if Apple is only left with 30-50% (optimistic) of the market once Sony appears, thats great.

Remember too that Apple will have a whole year (or so) to release more updates and possibly a Sony Killer before Sony even hits the market. The other thing to remember is that the Walkman was Sonys last big hit inot portable music, after that they have been quiet if not unsuccessful.

I agree with earlier comments- Sony software sucks bigtime and their attempts at integration with other hardware and software is a record of failure. We are the winners here.

[wsteineker]

I've noticed one dominant theme regarding this topic. Everytime an article is written regarding a new MP3 player, regardless of manufacturer or media outlet, it's always describd as some sort of "iPod killer". That is to say that the only model that any of them are compared to is the iPod itself. Where are the comparisons to the Dell DJ? Where are the comparisons to the Samsung Napster Player? These two models in particular were supposed to be iPod killers, and yet are rarely ever mentioned when HD based MP3 players are discussed. If the competition's so great, where is the mindshare (not to mention the marketshare)?

[sonyrules]

Originally Posted by wsteineker

I've noticed one dominant theme regarding this topic. Everytime an article is written regarding a new MP3 player, regardless of manufacturer or media outlet, it's always describd as some sort of "iPod killer". That is to say that the only model that any of them are compared to is the iPod itself. Where are the comparisons to the Dell DJ? Where are the comparisons to the Samsung Napster Player? These two models in particular were supposed to be iPod killers, and yet are rarely ever mentioned when HD based MP3 players are discussed. If the competition's so great, where is the mindshare (not to mention the marketshare)?

No kidding... Thats all you hear about, and there all talking about killing the iPod, but no one ever mentions these other so called "Great" MP3 devices.

[reyesmac]

Apple knew it would have competition when they launched the iPod. They should know that about any product they launch. So they better have something up their sleeve about price or features to maintain their sales.

Now, if the Playsation Portable can play mp3's and videos and games. I would rather buy that than an iPod if the two are the same price.

I hope Apple does not play catch-up with their iPod someday.

[ITR 81]

Correct they would.

TechTv did a roundup of all the new MP3 players out there and still declared the iPod the champ.

I hoping gives out some good news in the direction the iPod is heading.

Thing is we all know Jobs has talked about the $100-$200 dollar iPod before...now it seems like the time to make it reality.

[neutrino23]

Interesting. In their minds what constitutes a competitive product? Will it sync with iTunes? Will it play nice with Apple's DRM? Will it sync with iCal and Address Book?

There are already a number of cheaper players on the market. It will take more than a low price to unseat the iPod.

Moreover, Apple will not be sitting still. By next summer we may see at least one and perhaps two revisions to the iPod.

That's what makes it so hard to play catchup.

Sony will sell a player as low as $60? I think that is about what I paid for my son's iPod (we took advantage of the special offer to buy it together with a PB).

If price is important Apple is in a good position to adjust price to special markets.

They already have the education discount for students. That could be increased in short spurts. They could offer coupons worth 100 songs. They could offer more bundles like the one recently ended. Buy a Mac and get an iPod for $50 if you are a student.

[sethypoo]

The Sony PSP seems to confusing, not to mention the fact it is so cheap could mean it's flimsy, aka low quality. It is weird how every new MP3 player that comes out is labeled as an 'iPod killer.'

Most amusing.

[Potus]

Will the Sony also have a corkscrew?

[csubear]

About a year i bought a NetMD. For anyone who dose not know what the NetMD was, it was a portable player that i think could of been competion for the ipod. I was based off sony's MiniDisc format, and offered 2 1/2 hours off music on one disc. With a battery life of well over 20 hours of play this device seemed like a winner. I figured for the price of $1 a disc, and $150 for the player i was saveing my self money vs. buying an ipod. ( I wasn't a mac user a the time)

What i ended up doing is wasting about 155 dollars.

The software that the thing came with is pure junk, and it is not avaiable for mac. In fact because of the way the made the device there is now way that even a third party could write a driver the device.(It transfered the music encryped). And again i must say again the software was junk. The software required that you import and re-encode all you music to a sony "format" and placed in to a libary. After that when you wanted to "check out " (you could only check out a song three time, and if you failed to check that song back in it was lost forever) a song it then coverted the file to ATRAC3 and then encryped it for transmision. While this was happening the software always crashed, or hung(thanks windows).

Sony is paranoid about music priating( They are a major record label), and any music device that involes sony will suck for the following reasons.

1. Your music will have to be re-encoded in to their format(Just imagaine how much sound quality will be lost). They are not just going to give up all their ATRAC research.

2. You will have to use there very crappy software(OpenMG). Which is not very open.

3. There will be no mac support.

But anyway. I am sure that i have not covered every thing in my little rant, but this is the best i can do. I am sure sony will screw up the DRM for this thing, and even though it will be a cheaper, sony will kill it with its bad software and DRM.

I am sure other people can say other things about sony's digtal music product(NetMD).

(forgive the spelling and grammer)

[rt_brained]

Originally Posted by csubear

About a year i bought a NetMD. For anyone who dose not know what the NetMD was, it was a portable player that i think could of been competion for the ipod. I was based off sony's MiniDisc format, and offered 2 1/2 hours off music on one disc. With a battery life of well over 20 hours of play this device seemed like a winner. I figured for the price of $1 a disc, and $150 for the player i was saveing my self money vs. buying an ipod. ( I wasn't a mac user a the time)

What i ended up doing is wasting about 155 dollars.

The software that the thing came with is pure junk, and it is not avaiable for mac. In fact because of the way the made the device there is now way that even a third party could write a driver the device.(It transfered the music encryped). And again i must say again the software was junk. The software required that you import and re-encode all you music to a sony "format" and placed in to a libary. After that when you wanted to "check out " (you could only check out a song three time, and if you failed to check that song back in it was lost forever) a song it then coverted the file to ATRAC3 and then encryped it for transmision. While this was happening the software always crashed, or hung(thanks windows).

Sony is paranoid about music priating( They are a major record label), and any music device that involes sony will suck for the following reasons.

1. Your music will have to be re-encoded in to their format(Just imagaine how much sound quality will be lost). They are not just going to give up all their ATRAC research.

2. You will have to use there very crappy software(OpenMG). Which is not very open.

3. There will be no mac support.

But anyway. I am sure that i have not covered every thing in my little rant, but this is the best i can do. I am sure sony will screw up the DRM for this thing, and even though it will be a cheaper, sony will kill it with its bad software and DRM.

I am sure other people can say other things about sony's digtal music product(NetMD).

(forgive the spelling and grammer)

Funny, I was going to crack a joke about the upcoming Sony PMP...something like, "The new Sony PMP will require using 1) their new proprietary music format, 2) klunky Sony software and 3) storage on those stupid mini discs that they can't seem to get the world to adopt."

[rt_brained]

With so many stupid names for music players out there, I wonder why no one bothered branding one with: "PiMP" (Portable individual Music Player).

[Mainyehc]

And now, I'm a happy owner of a 20GB 3G iPod!

Originally Posted by csubear

I am sure other people can say other things about sony's digtal music product(NetMD).

It wasn't a NetMD, it was an old but great MZ R-70, which could only record tracks in the ATRAC3 format, not even MDLP, meaning that the total record time for an 80' disc would be... 80'!
Still, it was a hell of a player/recorder. It was €250, and had a great full aluminum case, and two headphone jacks, one with remote plug (nowadays, the MD Walkmans carrying that price tag have an aluminum top cover and plastic bottom, or are all plastic, and even top level models come with only one headphone jack), plus a microphone jack and a combo optical/line-in jack. 30'' skip protection, great sound, small but nice LCD, blah blah...
I loved that thing, and I still miss a lot of their features when using my iPod... The two jacks (yes, I suppose I could buy a Y-splitter), the Mic jack, the fact that I could use my brother's MZ E-60 remote, (the E-60 is a player only, which hasn't an LCD in it's body but in the remote instead - I'd love to see an iPod remote with an LCD, that would provide some basic browsing functionality), and of course, the HUUUGE battery life (I had the original AA Ni-CD, plus two other Ni-MH, and of course, all the alkalines I could get my hands on)...
What have I ended up with? THIRTY-TWO MiniDiscs, which I keep in 3 11-disc Sony boxes... And I actually carried those 3 beloved boxes wherever I went!! I have no idea of how much each one of those boxes cost me, but they sure weren't cheap (like €40/$40(?) each!!). And besides, burning my "almost legal" mp3 using my old PC's line-out wasn't that fun, as it wouldn't be either with my iMac's line-out, or even the digital optical-in (great for track mark syncing though)...
When I decided to buy my iMac I was tired of the 1x transfer rate of my MD, but I wanted to keep my old discs, and maybe reformat them with a NetMD (indeed saving in discs, as I'm almost sure that those 32 discs, reformatted, would last me for a lifetime)...
But then I discovered it wasn't compatible with the Mac, and that was a great stab in my "relationship" with Sony (I thought I was a loyal Sony fan, having a Sony TV, Mini Hi-Fi, Tape Walkman - two, actually, 'coz my 1st was stolen -, two MD Walkmans - the R-70 and the E-60 -, consumables such as tapes and MDs, until I found that one is easily way more loyal to Apple products )... So, as I am a switcher, I might as well switch to Apple as far as music is concerned. Right now, I don't think I would buy a device other than the iPod, even if I chose to buy a new PeeCee instead.
So... show off your iPods to as many people as you can, demo them if you get the chance (I actually do it unconsciously coz' I love to share my music library with everyone... I guess I'll get that Y-splitter soon )! IMHO, that's the best way to make people surpass that huge barrier that is leaving the "lusting over" phase, and get to actually buy an iPod. Heck, all my university colleagues are lusting over my iPod, I suppose if Apple dropped the mini's price down to $199/€199, their competition in the mp3 player market would be definitely blown away!
Most people I know won't get a Mac or an iPod because of its price (they already love it anyway)... However, give them an affordable iPod, and then we'll see if Apple should worry so much about competition... ehe! A 2 GB at $100 mini, and the 4 GB at $200 should suffice most people's needs (not mine, even though my iPod still has some 14 GB free space, I do believe I'll fill it in a couple of years), without cannibalizing the other three big ones. I don't believe they'll drop their prices that much, but anyway...
AS FOR THE PSP... I don't happen to have a Playstation, my only console is a NES, it still works and I love it! Yes, I know a few guys who have a Playstation I or II or both, and portable consoles like GB, GB color or GBA (don't actually know anyone who has a GBA SP)... But heck, they are A FEW people... It's a totally different market segment! I just DON'T like playing games, and I happen to be a music lover. Do you think I'd buy one of those gadgets?
Ok, when mere mortals like me ever think of buying a device like that PSP thing for playing movies and browsing the Web, then it's time for Apple to make the PowerPod (call it whatever you want), it shouldn't be that hard to come up with... It didn't have to have those super gaming abilities anyway, just a nice screen for, say, viewing photos (great for digital photography) and videos! (and this is reminding me of that "Newton revival" thread, but looked at from a different point of view... What about a sleek, yet affordable PDA-like thing for normal people, not just executives in suits? It would be a concept very different from a PDA, though... It could be a portable extension of your iLife, not your office, or your console )
Face it, Apple is (one of) the best at nearly everything it's into, so, I think we should just expect even greater devices from them... Go Apple!