“Sony is advising consumers not to use software supplied with its new range of digital music players after hundreds of users complained that it caused their computers to crash.
The new Sony MP3 Walkman was billed as the company’s long-awaited answer to the iPod and became one of the biggest-selling electrical items for Christmas,” Simon de Bruxelles reports for The Times Online. “But Sony admitted that the software sold with the player has ‘major problems,’ which has left many owners unable to use the players. The Connect Player programme is designed to transfer music from the user’s computer to the player and to connect them to Sony’s music sales website. But distraught buyers have been posting messages on websites cursing Sony. Others have returned their £199 players for a refund.”
“A woman called Amy wrote that her boyfriend bought her the Sony player for Christmas after she asked for an iPod. She said: ‘After three bottles of wine, 60 fags and trying all night to get some songs on the thing, me and my boyfriend are over. This morning I tried again, failing and throwing the mouse at the wall. Help!’ John Dolan, a software designer from Cambridge, bought the players as presents for his 12-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. He spent the two weeks before Christmas trying, without success, to get them to work properly,” de Bruxelles reports.
“Sony, the company that began the portable music revolution with the cassette tape-playing Walkman in 1979, was a late entrant in the race to take on the iPod. It finally produced its new Walkman range in Europe and Japan in early November,” de Bruxelles reports. “The players were an instant success. Both the 6gb NW-A1000 and the 20gb NW-A3000 flew off the shelves despite costing £149 and £199 respectively. Unfortunately for a significant number of purchasers, the bundled software refused to work. Users complained that they were unable to get the Connect Player programme to load on to their computers. Others found their machines crashing or got bored waiting hours for signs of life.”
Full article here.
Unsurprisingly (because there is none), de Bruxelles offers no proof to back up his claim that Sony’s MP3 Walkman “became one of the biggest-selling electrical items for Christmas.” Perhaps he defines “biggest-selling” in a unique way; perhaps “biggest-selling” to him means “most-defective,” least-desired,” “highly-returned,” or something similar? “Biggest selling” in stores that had already run out of iPods, maybe? Without sources or numbers, we can only guess. According to the proof-averse de Bruxelles, “both the 6gb NW-A1000 and the 20gb NW-A3000 flew off the shelves” and were “an instant success.” One can only surmise that retailers were wiping them off their own shelves poste-haste in clouds of dust in order to make room for more iPods. Certainly, the Sony players and the Windows-only Connect software were “instantly successful” in helping people realize that they should’ve bought an iPod and downloaded iTunes instead. Why waste money on bad fakes when you can have the real thing?
Just like Macintosh: iPod+iTunes. Because life’s too short.
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Related articles:
Sony reorgs floundering Connect digital music outfit – January 20, 2006
Sony’s new Windows-only ‘Connect Player’ bears eerie resemblance to Apple iTunes – September 09, 2005
Apple wins iTunes interface patent – May 11, 2004
Too little, too late? Sony getting killed by Apple in digital audio – September 09, 2005
Also-ran MP3 player makers miffed by Apple’s impossibly low price for iPod nano – September 09, 2005
Sony and Warner holding out on Apple iTunes Music Store Australia – September 08, 2005
Sony Connect President in wake of iPod nano: ‘we will accelerate our challenge’ to Apple iPod – September 08, 2005
Apple close to deal with Sony for ‘online music download service for Japanese iPod users’ – September 05, 2005
Bad news for Sony: millions worldwide choosing Apple iPods – August 22, 2005
Sony to combat music market ‘maestro’ Apple Computer with ‘Walkman Beans’ – August 18, 2005
Musicians stage mutiny against Sony, defiantly offer music via Apple’s iTunes Music Store – August 10, 2005
Apple’s Japan iTunes Music Store debut more bad news for Sony – August 04, 2005
Sony debuts US$199 1GB iPod shuffle killer, bills it ‘small as a pack of gum’ – July 06, 2005
Sony BMG and EMI try to force Apple to ‘open’ iPod with iPod-incompatible CDs – June 20, 2005
…but it LOOKS like iTunes…
This is truly painful to watch. Sure, Sony blew it so many times – first with letting Apple take away the portable music player market why their content and electronics divisions dickered; their initial, poor music jukebox/download offering – the iTunes-clone connect; then the DRM brouhaha, now this.
I’m happy the world is seeing how much quality Apple is bringing to the market, really. But this is so embarrassing for Sony. And I just can’t get into the scheudenfreude (sic) spirit anymore.
Sony User Comment: ‘I am really disappointed. The player itself is fantastic, but what use is it if I can’t get any music on it?’
Well … That statement says it all. It’s Great and it doesn’t work.
I’ll never understand that kind of mentality.
In my world if something doesn’t work as advertised – it isn’t so great.
But then I live in an Apple world where things work 99.9% of the time.
iPod killer commits hari-kari?
As far as “best selling”, well maybe it was a best seller in Europe. Remember the reports before the holiday that Apple was favoring US retailers over those in other countries when it came to allocating iPods?
Attention, using any players aprt from iTunes is a compromise.
“She said: ‘After three bottles of wine, 60 fags and trying all night to get some songs on the thing, me and my boyfriend are over.”
This reads a hell of a lot differently here in the USA. I know my girlfriend would dump me if I had 3 bottles of wine and 60 fags (not that there’s anything wrong with that) while she was busy trying to deal with her nonPod.
…and that is why we don’t pick up cigarettes when we visit wee Britain.
Wow. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
qka, take it from me: All of europe bought each other iPods for Christmas!We know quality here in the old world
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Now would be a great time to get rid of any leftover Sony shares by the way. How many more beatings can these guys take before they throw in the towel? Ugly times for Sony…very ugly.
MDN Magic Word: “growth” as in: With Sony acting more stupid everyday, GROWTH is even more easy for Apple.
Apple should buy Sony, snatch up all there PSP screens for future iPods, then close them down.
….this report comes out ONE MONTH after Christmas..???
Close Sony down and give the shareholders their money back…
This nstory made me cringe. Even if they made a buying mistake, it really sucks to have that sort of experience with something that should just work.
For anyone who continues to say that the original iPod was nothing special because it was made of essentially off the shelf parts, what does this story say about supposedly tech-savvy Sony? Maybe a real player is not so simple to be done well? Or how quickly can the mighty fall?
I hope the PlayStation 3 works as promised. Looking forward to that.
> Both the 6gb NW-A1000 and the 20gb NW-A3000…
Are Sony & other PC companies completely unable come up w/ any interesting, meaningful or creative product names…? “Walkman” would never have become a hit w/ if it had been called one of _these_… How could I as a consumer walk into a store and request one of these things…?
HAR HAR HAR, of course
But you see this is the problem, all Windows software pretty much works like crapola.
People are used to it.
But now that iTunes came along, it sudden dawned on people that software ought to work right and be easy to use.
rutger:
I never said that europeans didn’t have taste & class.
I was just recalling the stories here on MDN of reports that Apple was shorting you on iPod availability.
I hope you & yours had all the iPods they wanted for Christmas.
Cheers!
MW = white (or black)
Biggest selling= It was being sold, and it is bigger physically than an iPod.
Yo ‘R’
Its not ‘… about supposedly tech-savvy Sony…’
Its about software ignorant Sony with the DRM.
They just refuse to let go of that damned DRM and that great Windoze experience
Sony’s atrak crap and encryption on the hardware is to blame. the sooner they abandon that stuff the quicker their troubles will pass. New propietary music systems in this day and age is down right stupid
Move on Sony or lose your business
“”A woman called Amy wrote that her boyfriend bought her the Sony player for Christmas after she asked for an iPod. She said: ‘After three bottles of wine, 60 fags and trying all night to get some songs on the thing, me and my boyfriend are over. This morning I tried again, failing and throwing the mouse at the wall. Help!’ John Dolan, a software designer from Cambridge, bought the players as presents for his 12-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. He spent the two weeks before Christmas trying, without success, to get them to work properly,” de Bruxelles reports”
Guess, Amy is up for grabs for any guy who is not too dorky to buy an iPod. And the poor kids! “Oh, cool, you got a Sony WMD1538CXFS !” Not!
This is easy
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Do not use Sony
@unsung hero: Schadenfreude
@qka: harakiri
iPods are great, I own a bunch of them. When I see people say things like ‘I didn’t know the itunes songs were locked to a single ipod, I should have bought an mp3 player instead’; well….it just says it all. Most people are ignorant when it comes to buying a music player..completely.
ATRAC is a decent technology. If you’re going to lock yourself in then it doesn’t matter (Protected AAC or ATRAC3plusplusextra). I thought Sony gave up trying head to head competition. The phone looks a hell of a lot better than that mot junker. So Connect sucks..yeah ok. Sony has bad DRM issues…yep…in fact…if it can be related to DRM then that part of a sony system sucks (A button labeled MD connected to the same ports and buses as the one labeled tape or CD will not provide output on half the ports if).
Other than that…Sony has some good products. I like my ipod, but damn the video is better on my PSP. I hope the PS3 is a quality product when it comes out.
How about ‘Apple releases something cool’ instead of ‘laugh at the other guy’ It gets old when you know Apple stuff is always going to win. It’s just sad and unfair …and really funny,.
I forgot my name:
What you describe is the characteristic perspective of PC users who have been conditioned to accept Microsoft’s Windows as the de facto standard of computing quality.
It all boils down to the software and the Windows mentality. Although this may be a rather extreme example, by and large the difference between software on a Mac and software on a PC is significant. I think this is the real reason of the iPod halo effect. It isn’t he iPod but the software that goes with it.
I have to use both Mac & Windows in my work, and it’s kinda like listening to the sounds of the ocean in one case, and nails on a chalkboard in the other. I knew it was going to be this way the first time I discovered that to shut down a PC you go to a button labeled “Start”. (I know that’s an old one but it represents the Windows mentality perfectly.)
“For anyone who continues to say that the original iPod was nothing special because it was made of essentially off the shelf parts, what does this story say about supposedly tech-savvy Sony? Maybe a real player is not so simple to be done well? Or how quickly can the mighty fall?”
My four year old first gen iPod is still working like the day I got it, with the original battery. That’s quality.
Also, it is still supported by every new iTunes release.
From SONY’s own website…
“Audio & MP3 WALKMAN…
Click below for recent independent reviews”
(nothing to click on)
“More reviews will be added soon”
can’t help but chuckle on this one…
So much better than fiction…
No doubt a few publications – like the BBC – won’t be reporting this embarrassing development as they promoted it as yet another iPod killer.
Before I had a Mac, I had a Sony Vaio laptop. I wanted to like Sony’s music program, but it always made my SONY laptop crash. Worst piece of software I’ve ever used. EVER.
First, MDN, your take is completely off-base and intended as pure insult with no more evidence presented than de Bruxelles… It is certainly possible that the Sony player was a huge hit in the EU and UK, possibly due to the supply issues many retailers experienced with iPods, and possibly since the EU and UK are markets that tend to be less likely to suck up to one single brand, despite it’s clear advantages.
Now, having said that, I have experienced Sony’s crappy software in the past…
Case 1) Early 2003: Don’t recall the name of the software, but it was bundled music player software on a VAIO notebook provided by my employer. The software would import hundreds of songs, and then mysteriously lose them all (they were still on the drive, but the software no longer could see them. I was sitting in my hotel room trying to figure it out and determined it was a database problem… I could delete the database and reimport the songs, but just manipulating the database would cause it to go bad again.
Case 2) Early 2005: Had a client with a brand new Sony VAIO notebook and a Sony Handycam. Had recorded a movie on the camera and needed to burn it to DVD. After going through an entire box of DVDs, they could not figure it out and contacted me for help… I got there, wasted a few more blank DVDs over the course of a couple hours… I finally concluded that the software had a fault, but whatever it was, I could not explain., so…
I told them that I had a possible alternative… I went to my home office, grabbed my month old Mac mini, brought it back, connected the Camera, which the Mac immediately recognised… I then inserted a blank DVD, and was prompted if I would like to burn the movie to the disc… In under 20 minutes (including connecting things up, testing the DVD, burning two more copies, I was done. I only charged for time spent on the job, but as I left, I explained that they were ripped off by the Sony, which is a good computer, But it would appear that Sony software is pure rubbish. I recommended they return the $1499 Sony VAIO, and to purchase a $999 iBook in it’s place. They did, and have not had the same trouble since.
Biggest selling electronic item? Where? Even in Japan there not buying them, there buying iPods! If you looked on Amazon.com the biggest selling items were all Apple products and of course the iPod video and other iPods were on top. No Sony product to be found anywhere. In fact this is the first time I’ve even heard of this product. I’m sure glad I own and iPod judging by the poor peoples frustration.
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Instant successful FAILURE!!
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I’ll say it again: Reorganize Sony. It’s broke.
>one of the biggest-selling electrical items for Christmas
So it beat toasters and hair-dryers?
>John Dolan, a software designer from Cambridge, bought the players as presents for his 12-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son
Don’t look now, but someone has made a complete ass of himself in public. Let’s see … did your kids ask for it or did you give them what you wanted? Are you going to buy them iPods now? Well … why didn’t you do it in the fukcing first place!!??
>Unfortunately for a significant number of purchasers, the bundled software refused to work
I take it that he means ‘all’ or ‘almost all’.
eric,
no sales of Sony WM in Europe, sorry, been there, seen nothing. Consumer electronic retailers rather carry the flash memory based offerings from producers like LG or even Creative. The Sony is in the same price bracket as the iPod, or higher, and the retailers rather stock the original.
The Macintosh bias of this article had me in stitches! “A bad fake” – oh sorry, I forgot that Apple had a patent on digital audio!
For the record, I use a Sony NW-HD5 player and haven’t ever had any problems with it. It’s by far more stable than my apallingly unreliable iPod and there’s no bass distortion either.
I’m an owner of the Sony Walkman NW-A3000 and I must say that the software doesn’t crash my computer. Connect software is only really slow and unpractical. Sony messed up there… :p
But there are still a lot of positive things to say about the player itself, so… If you would offer me a sony walkman or an 20gb ipod, i would definetly buy the sony walkman again.
—– apple, you monopolise the mp3 market, you bastards! ——