“There is currently no industry standard for downloadable MP3s. This means that, for instance, MP3s downloaded from Sony’s Connect service can only be played on Sony’s MP3 Walkman, and not on the more popular iPod (and vice versa),” Neil McCormick writes for The Telegraph.
“Behind the scenes, the battle waging for commercial dominance is reminiscent of the early 1980s cut-throat competition to establish video standards between VHS and Betamax. And lest we forget, VHS won despite being technically inferior,’ McCormick writes.
“Although Apple has been the pioneer in the MP3 market, with Sony/BMG controlling 25 per cent of the music market it will be interesting to see whose digital distribution platforms will survive,” McCormick writes. “Will all those expensive iPods we have been rushing out to buy wind up piled high in car-boot sales alongside Betamax video players and 8-track cassette machines?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Confused? Ditto. iPod can play AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV, so we don’t see why this writer’s concerned. If he means to ponder whether iTunes Music Store protected AAC (.m4p) content will possibly end up as “the next Betamax,” the songs can be easily transcoded into different formats with minimal degradation. That particular scenario doesn’t look remotely plausible at this time; 100 million sold and counting. We don’t see any reason for concern here.
this guy even mentions 8TRACK in the caption.. yet.. doesn’t see the irony..
who the hell is going to reccomend an mp3-less player to friends! Obviously, Sony is NOT p2p friendly like the iPod and will fail.
“It is like the myth of the superiority of Dvorak keyboards.”
jdb,
Actually, if you bothered to do a little research, you’d find that it’s not a myth at all; the Dvorak layout is more efficient because it dramatically reduces finger movement, and is more comfortable for RSI sufferers. Sure, advanced QWERTY typists can be blazingly fast, but equally fast Dvorak typists are exerting far less effort. I’m not an ergonomics expert, but I read somewhere that using only the home keys in QWERTY, one can type some 150 English words, while with the Dvorak home keys, one can type something like three thousand.
I presume you’re referring to Prof. Stan Liebowitz’s study attacking the notion that the Dvorak layout was superior. I refer you to Marcus Brooks’ excellent page, Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard, and his examination of the criticism by Liebowitz and others.
In my own experience, I find that I have become a much better touch typist. My speed has improved about 10% since I switched and I make fewer mistakes, but the real payoff for me is that it is much, much more comfortable, and I have to say that that has been far more important to me than speed. Personally, I have no opinion on whether it would benefit everyone to make the switch, but it has certainly been worth the time and effort for me.
What can I say? I’m a proud member of an even smaller subset of computer users, a Mac-owning Dvorak user. Just say no to the Windows-Intel-QWERTY unholy trinity!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
I was impressed by this comment from Bono
“U2’s lead singer Bono has proposed a radical solution. “If it is on the internet this week, we will release it immediately as a legal download on iTunes, and get hard copies into the shops by the end of the month,” he told me.”
Even if the writter of the article thought that Sony’s Connect music store sold its tracks as mp3 as previously mentioned on this forum.
VHS and the VCR is now irrelevant or very close to being so. So, winning the war was a very temporary thing. How many people converted their VHS collection to DVD? How many transferred their records (those round black things) to CD?
The iPod will go away and so will digital music in it’s current form. Everything changes.
Sony’s music store and playback machines are not making money… if you’re sony/BMG would you want to limit your market to that niche… remember, their machines don’t even play WMA….
In Turkey, we say:
A mad man threw a stone into a well.
40 wise people try to take it out.
We belive on freedom of speech. But, dude..?
Ipod vs. Betamax ? Come on!
As far as im concerned the company that provides a digital music player that can read as many different audio formats as possible is the company that will eventually win the race.
Sony’s attempt of their own proprietry fromat is 3 years too late!
Sony should have done this when APPLE launched the ipod – as it is they took their eye off the ball and instead of a market leader they are just another alsoran.
Its a shame, because Sony used to be like APPLE years ago and had innovation and creating new markets for products.
These days they are just and Sanyo or Alba or Pioneer and don’t innovate.
What peddlers of the “format war” ignore is that there is this big thing out there called the internet where people can share files amongst themselves FOC that they are unable to buy for their particular player, Sony, Universal and Co. dont mean shit. They can either get wise like Apple have done or get packing.
When I purchase my first Apple, serial number A000000721, Apple had close to 90% market share, they refused to let others play in their sand box, along came the others with inferior machines and the rest is history. Apple continues to do the same thing with the iPod and when the 1/2 price lot look a likes come along the general public will buy them and so will the iPod be history. Apple start licensing your technology to others, don�t make the same mistake again.
Re: Joe
I totally agree!
I just hope someone from APPLE is reading these bulletin boards!!
APPLE needs to use its position now in the music market to create more partnerships and licence the format!
We all know that this is what Microsoft did with it’s OS and we all know what happened after they did that – GLOBAL MARKET SHARE DOMINANCE!
If APPLE licence their format then WMA will be dead and buried!
On so will Microsoft’s chance to have WMA as the global format standard.
It’s all about the licensing. Betamax lost because the licensing was limited. PC’s beat Mac’s because IBM opened it up to ‘clones.’ Who wins the licensing war wins the game. Winner takes all.
wayne…
eh… careful.. the POINT of windows is that it pretty much runs on any computer.. that’s why it’s such a pain in the ass to use and to improve..
since apple makes the hardware they don’t have to worry about making the OS adaptable
Windows won because it benefitted from being the choice to pre-install for all different kinds of computers..considering Apple wasn’t even considering licensing.. so the prices started dropping on IBM compatibles.. simple economics
Why is Mandy Moore posting drivel about documentaries here?
Dear Sir/Madam,
Could you please quote your best price and delivery time for 60 Celeco Plugs CLP350 part Code; 6088-5426-01.
Best regards,
John Bendjamin
Projects Consultant