Apple Computer Inc., aiming to protect the lead of its iPod digital music player, launched a verbal strike against rival Sony Corp.’s new Network Walkman music player, which is designed to be an iPod killer,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
“In a prepared statement, Apple said Sony isn’t accurately depicting the song capacity of its new 20-gigabyte Network Walkman. While Sony says the device can hold 13,000 tracks, Apple alleges that the Japanese electronics giant, in calculating the storage capacity of the Network Walkman, is using songs that are compressed into digital files of inferior fidelity to those that Apple uses to calculate how many songs the iPod can hold. (Digital music of lower quality takes up less storage but delivers poorer sound than high-quality songs.) As a result, Apple said, Sony’s Walkman actually holds only 4,800 songs that have been compressed into a higher quality format,” WSJ reports.
“‘We’re disappointed that Sony, which is new to this market, has decided to make their first impression by attempting to mislead the press and customers,’ Apple said in a statement. ‘Sony chose to play marketing games so we wanted to set things right so that people could compare the devices apples to apples,’ said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of hardware product marketing,” WSJ reports. “Sony reacted angrily to Apple’s statement. Todd Schrader, Sony Electronics’ vice president of portable audio products, said the ‘Walkman has always been about choice.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Taking a page out of the Microsoft playbook, Sony is playing on the ignorance of the general public. Apple is right to correct Sony’s misleading claims publicly. If Sony has to stoop so low immediately at the product’s introduction, they must be very desperate indeed.
ouch
Shame on you, Sony! Even ATRAC ain’t that good.
First Pooooost!
Astounding. I thought something wasn’t right about those numbers and saw that the ATRAC had a higher compression and lower quality. Glad they spoke up.
Atrac, WMP, AAC, Ogg, MP3 comparison here (from an independent source).
http://www.cd-rw.org/news/archive/5257.cfm
Looks like Sony dropped another one. I can fit 22,648 songs ripped as 24 kbps mp3’s on my 20 gig ipod once again proving Sony has produced another piece of crap.
Sony is all about choice? As the Apple Turns had a great scene on that one today (http://www.appleturns.com). If one format, that no one else uses, is considered choice, then they’ve got it.
More evidence that Sony is desparate. Sony is the Oldsmobile of the portable audio market. Also Sony is increasingly associated with BAD QUALITY. They have skimped too much too often.
Young people have NO INTEREST in Sony.
Looks like Sony is in dire needs of an 80s revival.
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http://homepage.mac.com/johnhood
Apple should have got someone else to make this statement. If you’re the market leader, you should never talk about your competitor’s “inferior” products. It gives the public the impression that you think they are a legitimate threat.
anyone notice how the Inquirer tried to spin something like this negatively? all it could concede is that Apple has a point, but apparently, Greg Joswiak reacted with emotions bordering on rage. Where do they get this stuff? Also, no mention of iTunes sampling rates vs. Sony, besides the Sony line of consumer choice of sampling rate, not Apple’s. Uh – not Sony’s idea of high fidelity either.
It’s amazing to me how bad the Inquirer is that they can try to spin this story back against Apple. There is no parallel between the Sony fiasco vs. Apple’s G5, for instance, but they try to make that into a point.
And yes, Sony is completely irrelevant. They thought they could pull an iPod – i.e. have music drive hardware sales. Well, a 20Gb iPod costs less than the Walkman, ATRAC sucks, and their music store is pathetic. They have become the Microsoft of entertainment electronics, and Apple is beating both Sony and Microsoft.
Who cares about Sony anyway? All this talk of patriotism, and all you read in the papers is about how the iPod killer is arriving, Sony this, Sony that. Yes, the devices are all made in China or Taiwan, but at least Apple is a completely American company with its headquarters on American soil – not Cayman Islands.
apple should be talking to trading standards about this, just like dell did to apple about the uk g5 commercials.
yes Dave, apple needs a thurrot like mouthpiece, ostensibly impartial but yakking the company line.
The other problem with this is that most customers don’t understand or care about this stuff and will buy on price and “features”. Which is ok. The difference in quality isn’t noticable to 99% of the market.
Yuppies with a new ipod equipped BMW excepted of course.
Schrader no you na bakatare wa kubi ni shita hou ga ii to omou.
Joe, Thurrot would do it for Apple himself. He is an equal opportunity whore.
Two things struck me about this apple statement:
1) Apple must think Sony is competition
2) It is refreshing to see an agressive Apple, who will defend the iPod and scratch the eyes out of anybody trying to compete with them. It’s almost like they are saying “Sony, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight or we will shoot ya down!”
Now what can they say about battery life? Higher bitrate spins HD more in the long run.
“Greg Joswiak reacted with emotions bordering on rage. Where do they get this stuff?” – Michael
Yeah, especially when they quoted MacCentral. Were they there during the interview, since certainly MacCentral article never mention the word ‘rage’.
‘Walkman has always been about choice.’ – Sony
And that is why you can choose any codecs as long as it is ATRAC3.
Same crap from Sony. Liars, stinking ass liars. I hate this. Glad Apple is after these stinking ass liars. STINKING ASS SONY LIARS.
“SONY executives in a apparant attempt to regain honor when faced with their boldface lies by Apple today, have stripped naked and pierced their genitals with a #20 fish hook and allowed themselves to be dragged around Tokoyo by taxi cab.”
photo’s
Truly this is an embarrassment for Sony and I’ll bet that a few insiders are sharpening their knives. Sony Connect and WalkMan and the whole ATRAC3 idea sounded good on paper but was fatally flawed. The lie is a sign of current desperation. An irritated Apple slapped them in the face. This Shredder [of truth] fellow responded from a position of stress — perhaps his neck is on the line.
>Walkman has always been about choice
Customers aren’t that stupid. They’ll Walk Away. Hopefully Sony is smart enough to clean house.
“Comparing Apples to apples”
–> that was a great line!
haha. i love how they talk about the almighty Walkman brand…
that was like 30 years ago.. and now they want to talk about ‘waiting until we had it just right’..
that’s the worst business move i’ve ever heard of.. BE LIKE MICROSOFT.. get it right on the 3rd version..
don’t wait until people think you’re asleep to release sth..
Sony this, Sony that. Yes, the devices are all made in China or Taiwan…
Actually Malaysia, for many years now.
“Atrac3 by the consumer electronic giant Sony was just crushed in this comparison. Sony has originally developed the Atrac codecs for the MiniDisc players. Microsoft’s WMA scored the second lowest points in this test and one has to wonder why anyone should use this format.”
I’m wondering myself why anyone would want WMA…
…has always been about choice:
Sony Connect:
Only for PC
Only for I.E. Vs. 5.5+
Only ATRAC3
Only for Sony compatible devices
Sony customers (all seven of them) should be pleased.
Has anyone figured out how many .midi files Sony’s pod-wanna-be can hold? Maybe that’d sound better than ATRAC3 (aka “8 Track, version 3”).
Apple (
) blasting another company for misleading ads is amusing.
I smirk.