“Sony Corp has created a buzz with the unveiling of a new digital music player, but analysts say it has a long way to go before it challenges the industry dominance of Apple Computer’s popular iPod. Sony unveiled the new portable music player on Monday… Industry watchers say Sony will struggle to gain a stronger footing in the fast-growing industry now dominated by Apple,” Reuters reports.
“The U.S.-based company has nearly 50 percent of the market for digital MP3 music players thanks to the iPod’s success. ‘In terms of actually attacking Apple it’s only a start. I don’t see any major shake down in the industry right now,’ said Standard & Poor’s equity analyst John Yang. ‘I just don’t see how Sony could really turn the whole thing upside down with iPod,'” Reuters reports.
Full article here.
The shake down will be among all the other players & services – Wal-Mart, Napster, Rhapsody, MTV, Sony Connect, yadda yadda yadda. Some will do well and many will fail big time. For now, Apple will remain on top.
the user interface of the ipods is really really important asset to apple.
to crack apple music business, you will need to come up with some breakthru interface that even better than that of the ipods. like select the appropriate playlist by detecting your emotion or something like that.
unlike the original walkman, which had no real competitive advantage over the competitors apart from the brand image and quality “perception”
How can any of them make money or even compete as they all compete against each other and not against Apple. Because they really are not,
The hurdle they have to get over is the millions of ipods already out there.
One of these services needs an ipod killer and this Sony product is not!
When HP brings out their version of the ipod you will even see a bigger shift to the itunes store as this will start to bring a bigger chunk of the windows market to itunes
Smart HP
Let the others beat each other up for 20% market share and go broke trying
“the user interface of the ipods is really really important asset to apple.” – oddief1
It’s not only the user interface. Apple did hit a homerun with the wheel. And they patented them both. Nobody can use the wheel in any similarity to Apple’s use. It’s like patenting 2 of the aces and holding tightly to the other 2. You still can beat the hand, but it’s very likely you’ll not.
It was a good attempt but still does not make the grade. As long as Apple does not rest on their laurels they should be able to stay ahead of the game.
Just like everything else Sony does, it’s a great idea that will be killed by their proprietary format. ADAT anyone? Hm? How about Beta? No? Minidisc? Wait, Connect uses the same format, ATRAC. Sony, get a clue: WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO TRANSFER OUR MUSIC IN EARTH FORMAT. You don’t want to bring that to us, you might as well stay on Mars.
“It’s not only the user interface. Apple did hit a homerun with the wheel.“
The wheel is part of the user interface.
It’s about the mewzick, stewpitt. And iTunes gives unparalleled access to one’s own collection and so does iPod.
Let the rest compete against each other as iSteve says. The more the merrier. The one who succeeds will get screwed by M$ anyway, with or without compensation depending on how good their lawyers were.
Scroll wheels have been used on Sony products for years. I have a boom box from 6 years ago with a scroll wheel on it. What Apple has done is modify the design of the wheel to be touch sensitive, rather then mechanical, and incorporate in the mini, 4 “click” points for various functions. It is this particular design that Apple has patent pending. Anybody else can use a mechanical or even touch sensitive scroll wheel that does not have the mini’s special attributes.
it would be cool if they put a camera in there.. so you would have a digital record of the bus you ran into while running w this thing and watching choppy music vids..