“Acknowledging its proprietary audio technology was a marketplace flop, Sony Corp. is shuttering its Connect digital music store and will open its portable media players to other formats,” Matt Moore reports for The Associated Press.
“Sony said it would phase out operations of its struggling Connect online store, which sold songs in the company’s proprietary ATRAC format,” Moore reports.
“Sony spokeswman Linda Barger said the new Walkman players will no longer directly support ATRAC,” Moore reports.
“Sony Connect launched in 2004, but like other online music services, it has had a tough time competing against Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, which is tied to the market-leading iPod portable player,” Moore reports.
MacDailyNews Note: In no way is Apple’s iTunes Store “tied” to Apple’s iPod. Apple’s iTunes Store can be used without using Apple’s iPod and vice versa. We won’t argue that they do “complement” and “enhance” each other at times, but they are certainly not “tied.” (Related: Enjoying Apple’s iTunes and iTunes Music Store without owning an iPod – May 11, 2005)
Moore continues, “Sony said that… new Walkman video players will ship with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player 11 to manage digital libraries [and the players will be able to] play the Windows Media Audio, MP3 and AAC audio formats.”
Full article here.
It must not cost very much to develop antiquated* music players that nobody wants, because Sony just keeps right on releasing new ones. Is anybody running that company?
We know the things are relatively small, but give the landfills a break, guys!
*And soon-to-be-even-more-antiquated as of next Wednesday.
(Note: We already did the “blood” thing for Sony’s Connect back in June. Please see related articles below.)
Notify Apple via their feedback page that you need Matte screen options in all Mac’s.
Go to an art supply store and buy a can of dulling spray, or better yet, trade your 17″ MacBook Pro to me for my 17″ G4 Al Powerbook if you like matte screens so much. I think they suck.
Zune Tang’s sister. Last night.
I liked Mini-dsc, and got a recorder ten years ago when CD-R blanks were very expensive. Pioneer did 60 minute blanks for about £10 each, and they were difficult to find in stores.
The MD blanks were cheap and you could get 50 mono tracks on each one, instead of 20 on the CDs, a definite cost advantage.
Got many thousands of tracks – taken from my 78s – on MDs.
I just love the ” More Blood” leader MDN, Please don’t ditch it! It warms my heart to read that byline.