Sony plans Walkman to rival iPod

MadGamer · 01-07-2004, 16:36

Article here:

http://newsbox.msn.co.uk/article.asp...e=windows-1252

Bifta · 01-07-2004, 16:39

only plays tunes in ATRAC format .. *skip*

SMHarman · 01-07-2004, 17:07

Whats wrong with ATRAC? Better than MP3. Not really compared it to AAC

"Since Apple launched iPod three years ago it has dominated the digital music player market, outselling all competitors by nearly a two-to-one margin. Apple has an even larger lead in downloads, selling over 85 million digital tracks."

And those downloaders will not be buying one. Protected AAC>ATRAC encoder anyone?

bbwannabe · 01-07-2004, 17:35

The ATRAc thing will be one of it's downfall. not sure if Ipod converts the mp3s to another format, but the time it takes to convert mp3 to atrac is very time and space consuming (this is from personal experience with regards to Mini-disc). Had it been a simple drag and drop they would have gained more interest.

SOSAGES · 01-07-2004, 18:03

how silly but sony always wants to enforce its own formats for some reason..

mp3s are fine .

Damien · 01-07-2004, 19:24

There are many rivals already, WNA. I dont see why this is bad more choice is better for the consumer. If sonys effort is so bad it will fail, if it is good it will be successful and all the better for us

Bifta · 01-07-2004, 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Whats wrong with ATRAC? Better than MP3.

Because as someone else mentioned, if I have want to transfer 20 gig of mp3's to a player, I don't want to spend time converting thousands of them to a different format first.

bbwannabe · 01-07-2004, 20:51

also im sure they'll put some copying limits (ie you can only check it out 3 times like it's netmd minidiscs, or maybe prevent digital copying to other machines).
Its nice to hear there trying to compete with ipod, but unless they can make it simpler and quicker to use then as well as better in quality (the shock system in case you drop it sounds nice) then apple will just beat them at it.

SMHarman · 01-07-2004, 21:03

True, the iPod supports Apple AAC and MP3 to avoid this, Sony did this with Beta, looks like they are trying to relearn the lessons of the 70s

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbwannabe

Its nice to hear there trying to compete with ipod, but unless they can make it simpler and quicker to use then as well as better in quality (the shock system in case you drop it sounds nice) then apple will just beat them at it.

The apple is likely to survive such a test as long as the HDD is not spinning - which is most of the time.

01-07-2004, 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

True, the iPod supports Apple AAC and MP3 to avoid this, Sony did this with Beta, looks like they are trying to relearn the lessons of the 70s

Er, I can only assume you are talking about the fact that Sony went with Betamax instead of VHS. I think it was a fairly sensible decision considering that Betamax was launched in 1975 and VHS wasn`t launched until a year later. Kind of difficult to support what ended up being the more popular format when it isn`t even going to be around until the next year.

Unfortunately the average consumer doesn`t know jack and the inferior VHS standard ended up winning the format battle.

SMHarman · 01-07-2004, 22:14

Er, yes, but Sony refused to licence Beta, or would only licence it for an extortionate fee, so were the only supplier of Beta VCRs.

JVC / Panasonic licenced VHS effectivly making it an open standard so other manufactureres built them and it won by the fact that many manufacturers making competing products pushes the price down to a point consumers adopt.

The average consumer knows thier price point. Inferior standard or not.

01-07-2004, 22:42

Fair point, but there is a bit of a difference here. MP3 is already well entrenched, whereas Sony realised that they had a superior product on their hands and wanted to keep it to themselves. I can see that as partly justifiable if you are attempting to launch a standard, but I`m not sure it is strictly comparable to Sony refusing to support an already existing format.

SMHarman · 01-07-2004, 23:17

Apple have a superior standard - ATRAC and AAC (MP4) are both better than MP3, Apple have chosen to be backwardly compatible and support MP3. Sony have not.

01-07-2004, 23:40

Sorry, re-reading my earlier post I realise that it wasn`t particularly clear, the superior Sony product I was referring to was Betamax, not ATRAC.

SMHarman · 01-07-2004, 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Sorry, re-reading my earlier post I realise that it wasn`t particularly clear, the superior Sony product I was referring to was Betamax, not ATRAC.

IMHO ATRAC is better than MP3 too.