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Sony to Compete with iPod

hmmm pixlet

i wonder, with the ipod hdd sizes getting bigger, and an almost definite 80 hdd soon, might there be ipod with pixlet compression. then you could watch your own dvd's on your ipod? doesnt pixlet convert a 4 gig movie into a 256 meg file? this seems completely feasable to me.
that do ya'll think?
Andreas

other than this, i dont see a real use for pixlet for the average consmer
 
Anyone read the specs? It;s a 1.8g HD and a memory stick. Not going to store that many mp3s, and who wants to watch video on a tiny screen?

Sorry, the iPod does one thing and does it better then everyone else. Sony is going to try to kill it by doing 5 things and not come close to doing the mp3 as well as Apple and doing cheap meaning not much profit. Am I missing something? This sounds like a personal issue, they also mention taking it to "steve jobs".
 
Re: $100 iPod

Originally posted by Java
The iPod has already saturated the market.
Click to expand...
Yeah, right!?!?!

Currently the iPod may be the industry leader, but the market is far from saturated.

Remember, Apple must stay competitive to keep their lead.

Markets can and do change quickly. For example, just ask the Swiss about the electronic watch and how it changed their market share.

Sushi
 
also

to the average non mac person, i think price does matter alot. apple would do very well for even a 1 gig ipod at less than 100 dollars
like 99.99
popele see prices first, especially parents who buy gifts. they can always think i cant wait till i get the 40 gig ipod, but ill settle for my one gig right now till i have money.
more money for apple!!!
make at least one really cheap one, to get people hooked. its like drugs
the first hit is free
;-)

Andreas
 
Re: Something similar ready for X-mas for $99 called: ZVUE

Originally posted by hokka
http://www.zvue.com/

Check this out (not sure if anyone elses' posted earlier, got to go to bed, not time to read all, sorry in advance).

$99!!! Good night!
Click to expand...

OK, no mention of HD space, but for $99 it can't be much. So how do you get these full length 'movies' onto the device? Why would I want to watch Matrix on a screen the size of matchbook? And with no mention of HD size, you have no idea how many mp3s it will fit.

Sorry, but the aim these companies are taking by saying 'we do 15 things compared to the 1 the iPod does' isn't the right approach. iPod plays mp3s and syncs with iTunes and does that better then anyone. Most of the people who have an iPod use it for, wait, ah, listening to mp3s!!!! So why the frick would i care if the next player has a macthbook size video screen!?!?

Competition is good, but I don't see any of these devices grabbing much from Apple's 'music player' market share.
 
Re: also

Originally posted by blueflame

make at least one really cheap one, to get people hooked. its like drugs
the first hit is free
;-)

Andreas
Click to expand...

We've all been saying that about a "headless" iMac, but Apple hasn't done it. I think the size of the HD is a huge factor in driving the price of the iPod, and that's a factor over which Apple does not have control.

Steve Jobs has recently said that he'd "Love" to sell a $100 iPod, but they don't want the brand quality to suffer in favor of price.
 
Re: hmmm pixlet

Originally posted by blueflame
i wonder, with the ipod hdd sizes getting bigger, and an almost definite 80 hdd soon, might there be ipod with pixlet compression. then you could watch your own dvd's on your ipod? doesnt pixlet convert a 4 gig movie into a 256 meg file? this seems completely feasable to me.
that do ya'll think?
Andreas

other than this, i dont see a real use for pixlet for the average consmer
Click to expand...

How many times does this need to be address? Pixlet was NOT designed for the "average consumer" Pixlet was designed as a compression factor for high end video editors using HD or HD/2 size video which is like 4 times the resolution of DVD and other digital video images. Pixlet was developed to give these high-end video editors another reason to do their editing with Final Cut Pro on a macintosh. This is why Pixlet will not compress a mpeg 2 video smaller, and instead will increase the size. Pixlet is not, and never will be intended for consumer home use. Period. End of story.
 
Re: Re: hmmm pixlet

Originally posted by stoid
How many times does this need to be address? Pixlet was NOT designed for the "average consumer" Pixlet was designed as a compression factor for high end video editors using HD or HD/2 size video which is like 4 times the resolution of DVD and other digital video images. Pixlet was developed to give these high-end video editors another reason to do their editing with Final Cut Pro on a macintosh. This is why Pixlet will not compress a mpeg 2 video smaller, and instead will increase the size. Pixlet is not, and never will be intended for consumer home use. Period. End of story.
Click to expand...

Everything that he said, and...
do you guys remember when Steve interduced pixlet? He said wow this is so cool, and o ya you need at least a 1Ghz G4 to decode it.
 
$99 ipods

I doubt it will happen this year or next, there's more to the manufacturing cost of the ipod than the toshiba HD itself. Battery, controller, those touch sensitive interface. I'm guessing a 5GB HD costs about the same as a 10 GB if you factor in economy of scale or else we would still have a killer 5 GB on the market.

I don't understand why people keep equating the storage capacity of the platters with hypothetical pricepoints? It's only about 25% percent of the equation. The low end 10 GB is already stripped of all the accessories with the exception of the earbuds to make it economical.
 
Re: Re: Something similar ready for X-mas for $99 called: ZVUE

And that's exactly the point, I'd get one for $99 just to see how it works. You cant beat that with a bat. Apple better do more than music, or it's going to be on the short end of the stick.

I'd love to watch the matrix on this device. No it wont be sitting in the livng room playing for my guest, but at school (during breaks), at work(during lunch), and just to show off. It would be great.

Originally posted by Kid Red
OK, no mention of HD space, but for $99 it can't be much. So how do you get these full length 'movies' onto the device? Why would I want to watch Matrix on a screen the size of matchbook? And with no mention of HD size, you have no idea how many mp3s it will fit.

Sorry, but the aim these companies are taking by saying 'we do 15 things compared to the 1 the iPod does' isn't the right approach. iPod plays mp3s and syncs with iTunes and does that better then anyone. Most of the people who have an iPod use it for, wait, ah, listening to mp3s!!!! So why the frick would i care if the next player has a macthbook size video screen!?!?

Competition is good, but I don't see any of these devices grabbing much from Apple's 'music player' market share.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by djdarlek
If Apple take on this Sony PSP device with a predicted iPod2 I can forthsee Apple again getting market dominance.
Click to expand...

iPod2? What could be in the iPod2 that would make it more competitive. If it becomes a PDA it will be competing with Palm and Windows Mobile. I don't know you need an iPod2, you just need to reduce manufacturing cost so you can reduce price.

I'm getting a PocketPc Phone for Christmas and I would love, love to be able to play AACs and access iTMS. I don't need an iPod2 or an iPod PDA, just like I don't need a HD MP3 player, my iPod can't be beaten.

What I do need is either the iPod and iTMS to do WMA, or for AAC to proliferate, I would like to see iTMS support in other devices. I really predict flash players to begin to take over. iPod is great but there is still a need for flash based players and PDAs are going to surge over the next couple years IMO. I think the PSP will be a huge hit with it's core market.

edit: with the PSP rumored tos upport AAC, this could be enormously good news for Apple if they can workout a Fairplay-AAC license agreement with Sony. I have to believe that in time, iTMS will fail or become marginal and irrelevant rather quickly if it continues to only have 1 client device.
 
Re: meh

Originally posted by damax452
My theory on electronic devices, and other equipment is this. If you attempt to design a product that does multiple tasks (i.e. MPEG4, mp3, cell phone, corkscrew, etc.) then you will not be able to make the device perform any one of the tasks with great success. Aspects of each task will have to be compromised in order to create a cost effective device.
Click to expand...

I think you're right, but I believe it's as much a marketing issue as anything. Sometimes, pushing too many features can dilute the overall message; "an excellent music player (with added features)" sounds better to me than "a device that does everything".

With consumer devices, they all need a 'killer app' (for the iPod, it's a music jukebox, for smartphones, it's the telephony) that convinces people to buy it, once they're hooked you can start adding features and value.

That, IMO is why PDAs have struggled, they've tried to be a one-size-fits-all solution, without focusing on just one compelling application.
 
Re: hmmm pixlet

Originally posted by blueflame
i wonder, with the ipod hdd sizes getting bigger, and an almost definite 80 hdd soon, might there be ipod with pixlet compression. then you could watch your own dvd's on your ipod? doesnt pixlet convert a 4 gig movie into a 256 meg file? this seems completely feasable to me.

other than this, i dont see a real use for pixlet for the average consmer
Click to expand...

That's because pixlet is not for the average consumer

Pixlet has the same data rate as DV. DV stores hone our of video in 13GB. Sure, the pixlet is higher quality, but it's not meant for end-user video watching.

Common reference points (all at differing resolutions/quality, but relatively standard usage rates):

Pixlet = DV = approx 13GB per hour of video
DVD = approx 4GB/hour
Divx = approx 300MB/hour

Pixlet is of much higher quality than the latter two.... so is a compressed well... but is not something you want to carry around with you.

arn
 
I didn't read the whole thread, so it may have already been mentioned.

Sony is not only going up against Apple, the powerhouse in the portable audio player arena, but also against Nintendo, the powerhouse in the portable gaming arena.

Nintendo dominates portable gaming even more than Apple does portable audio(no, I don't count CD's as porta--skip--skip--skip--ble).

The only thing Sony has going for them is the "cool" factor. It won them the Console wars (atleast these last couple generations).. it could do it again.

I have a feeling though, that Nintendo will not just sit still while their biggest and most succesfull franchise is attacked, likewise for Apple and their huge dominance with the iPod.

I say this thing has a 25% chance at best of overthrowing the iPod, and 15% on the Gameboy.
 
Originally posted by 1macker1
Who knows what the battery life will be. I say bring it on, due to the fact that it will make Apple drop the price of the iPod. I dont think the sony 'mp3/video/telephone' will do any harm to the ipod market. Didn't they see how sega's NGAGE flopped.
Click to expand...

Just thought I should correct you on a few points😉

the PSP will NOT have a phone
N-gage is made be Nokia not Sega, although Sega is developing games for it.

It's an honest mistake, I just want to make sure wrong info isn't passed on.
 
Originally posted by the_mole1314
I'd bet my life that Apple comes out with a 5gig $99 iPod before the end of the year.
Click to expand...

Never going to happen. $200 is probable IMO and $150 is a *huge* stretch.
 
product differentiation

Apple have got the best bar none high end digital music player. If you like, it is the music player equivalent of their G5 dual processor computer. In order to maintain the integrity of iPod as the best, and also in an attempt to draw the 70% "ipod mimic" market towards Apple, why not bring out a $99 player ie the music player equivalent of the entry level eMac.

Somewhere down the iPod development line Apple took a right turn, went the expensive mini hard drive route. For a low end model, they could maintain basic iTMS compatability but use a smaller, cheaper storage method. When people get hooked on the experience on a mini $99 scale, they will upgrade to the full tooty as sure as night follows day.
 
Originally posted by MorganX
edit: with the PSP rumored tos upport AAC, this could be enormously good news for Apple if they can workout a Fairplay-AAC license agreement with Sony. I have to believe that in time, iTMS will fail or become marginal and irrelevant rather quickly if it continues to only have 1 client device.
Click to expand...

Nokia has at least one phone that can play AAC files, the 7700, but not yet available. Of course it looks like you have a Frisbee stick to your head when you use it as a phone though.

"RealPlayer: Playback and stream RealMedia (video and audio) and 3GPP-compliant content (H.263 and MPEG-4)
Music: supports MP3, AAC, RealAudio 7 and 8, WAV, MIDI, and AMR-NB file types. Keep your sounds organized with Nokia Audio Manager (NAM)"

Apple should try to partner with Nokia.
 
Originally posted by MorganX
...this could be enormously good news for Apple if they can workout a Fairplay-AAC license agreement with Sony
Click to expand...
Fairplay is licenced to Apple, so sony doesn't necessarily need to go to Apple to get it. If this is correct anyways....

Story

You might also do a search for Veridisc and Fairplay to get their website.
 
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