by Playfuls Staff |
13th October 2006
Sony was indeed the leader in the past with the initial generation of walkmans and the music played on them from CDs. And although I praise competition and Sony’s intention of re-entering the market with better products I’m afraid that’s not enough.[more]
It’s actually history repeating: Creative, SanDisk and a bunch of other famous brands have all failed in their attempts to kill the iPod. Apple does rule the market and has a lot of sympathy from its fans (I’m not really one of them). One clear example: Apple had to pay about $100 million to Creative, its most famous competitor, for a patent infringement concerning the scroll wheel. You’d expect customers to lose their confidence in Apple’s brand and to flock to Creative’s products, because Apple looks now like a copycat. It didn’t happen. It was actually Creative which lost, since they fell on the third place in the digital music market, being overpassed by SanDisk.
The paradox is even more intriguing: Toshiba’s GigaBeat is far better than the iPod (lots of positive reviews on the Web for it) but trails far behind Apple’s, despite its obvious qualities.
So it’s clear Sony needs more than a good product, if it doesn’t want to end up like Zune (I know, it’s not yet on the market, but don’t worry it WILL fail. Although I appreciate again Microsoft’s courage, which brings competition to another level).
Recent event in Sony’s history make me unconfident about the success of the video MP3 player from the Japanese manufacturer.
I wouldn’t want to bring back more distant memories concerning Sony’s fight with JVC (Betamax vs. VHS). There are other more interesting details that should concern us all: the Total Recall operated by big names in the IT business, like HP, Dell, Apple or Acer. Reports about Sony-made batteries from laptops catching fire and destroying their surroundings have been so numerous that all these producers preferred to have their laptops called home for a serious check-up rather that having a lawsuit.
Is Sony’s MP3 video player going to catch fire while I’m holding it? Kaz Hirai has the answer: “If you asked me if Sony’s strength in hardware was in decline, right now I guess I would have to say that might be true.” That’s a relief…Do I have to mention that Samsung is now evaluated at $120 billion while Sony is somewhere around $45 billion?
But that’s not all: what rootkits will Sony’s product install on my computer when I connect the gadget to it, in order to have the DRM protection in use? Moreover, rumors are out about Sony preparing a new digital music format called “SMF”, which should quadruple the quality of AAC sound, and will be installed on every music device build by Sony, being sold in the new BMGOnline music store designed to compete with iTunes. Nice perspective…
"To catch up in music players, Sony needs to appeal to people who don't use personal computers to download and store music, marketing executive Kiyoshi Shikano said. " Hm…is that a hint at the fact that the ghostly PS3 will be interoperable with the MP3s? Sony already boasted with the fact that PS3 is meant at replacing the computer from our lives…
All in all, Sony’s concern should now be to repair their image, but I don’t think an iPod competitor is going to achieve that. For Sony’s sake, they’d better not announce triumphantly a year before events that won’t take place even in 2 years from now on(PS3 delays ring a bell?). They’d better work on actually releasing products, but without “hidden” features…
