p2pnet - rss feed: Sony vs Apple: Part II
p2pnet.net News:- The writing was clearly on the wall when Sony unveiled its Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 mp3 player in a bid to regain at least partial control of the portable music player market it once dominated with Walkman.
Vaio challenges Apple’s iPod and one of its main distinctions is the fact it has a small screen which shows track info and can play back video images associated with albums.
Now, Sony plans to evolve its Vaio-branded computer platform into a number of networked audio and video products, states an eeTimes story here, quoting Keiji Kimura, president of Sony’s IT & Mobile Solutions Network company.
"Significantly, Vaio operating systems will no longer be limited to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP," the story goes on. "Vaio Pocket, Sony’s new portable audio player will use Sony’s proprietary operating system. The same is apparently true of the video version of a prototype pocket device Sony demonstrated here.
"The pocket video prototype includes a hard-disk drive, MPEG-4/MPEG-2 video decoding and 802.11g-based wireless connectivity. The palm-size video device is designed to let users download content from a home server. Consumers can also use it to wirelessly transfer video content to a big- screen TV."
May 15th, 2004 at 12:18 pm
as cool as it may be to transfer video wirelessly, or carry it around with you, what’s the point? why would i want to watch a movie on a small screen if i can just use my TV? if i can’t use my tv, why not my laptop? and, why transfer wirelessly to a big screen when you can just pop in the DVD at a higher quality anyways, seems kinda pointless to me. I only see poeple buying it who have hundreds of dollars they don’t mind throwing away on gadgets. it won’t have a mass market appeal. the ipod basically does one thing and does it well, and it’s not too far out of anyone’s price range. it’s also worth saving up for if you have to. people don’t want portable video, as steve jobs has said, look at portable dvd player sales….how come they aren’t skyrocketing if people want portable video so bad and have all kinds of dvds? it’s simple, people just don’t want it like they want portable music…i never look at my ipod, it’s in my pocket.
May 15th, 2004 at 12:43 pm
Note that the Sony mp3 player doesn’t play mp3s …. you have to transcode them into Sony’s format (at a loss of quality) using a Sony tool.
May 15th, 2004 at 3:19 pm
There’s no merit to the Sony product… too weird and too late. In fact, it’s creepy though I’m tempted to swap the double ‘e’ for an ‘a’. Why oh why does the music need to be transcoded to ATRAC? On an iPod, at least, you’ve backed-up the music there.
BTW: I’m not an “Anonymous Coward” — I just don’t receive spam and I like to keep it that way. And what’s with the following:
QUOTE
p2pnet doesn’t monitor comments, although we look at them from time to time. (We’ve been able to get a couple of good stories out of them : ) BUT - we’ll delete anything we come across which is obscene, or which denigrates gender or religion
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WTF are you to define “obscene” or judge what “denigrates…religion”? Censor this and you are the coward, weirdo.
May 15th, 2004 at 4:53 pm
As the market leader, Apple can afford to release an iPod that matches features up to 2-3 months after other companies do so. And now that the iTunes Music Store has it, I expect the next 4th Gen iPod to show album art & short videos for songs. The one thing that Sony is great at is long battery life (from my experience with Sony camcorders and cameras)- here Apple might not be able to match it (although Apple has done well with battery life for Powerbooks and iBooks). But what’s with the Sony price? For $472, Apple will offer 40GB ($499), not 20GB! And as long as they stick to ATRAC DRM format, they’ll fail if they ever sell it in the US - so I see why they are sticking to Japan.
Regarding the digital movie strategy, Sony seems to be following Apple’s approach, not Microsoft; that’s would explain why they want to move beyond Windows XP. MS’ view is to put movie watching on a PC, or to put the Media Center PC (connected to the TV) in the living room. Apple has said that people want to watch movies on a TV or large display (no PC in the living room please) - I agree except when I’m on an airplane. How do you do that? You network your PC/servers to your living room electronics. Even better, you network it wirelessly and with zero configuration (Apple’s Rendezvous). And what’s an iPod besides a music player? It’s a server with 40GB of storage. Imagine having wireless displays in any room in your house, in your car, and on an airplane. You bring your own movies and transmit it to the display or projector. You don’t watch it on the iPod itself.
But Sony is jumping the gun by using 802.11g (WiFi); it doesn’t have the quality-of-service to smoothly deliver movies. Maybe that’s why it’s still a prototype and not a product. Ultra-wideband (UWB) is the answer. UWB chips are in prototyping today (altho the final standard is not yet IEEE approved); IP, Firewire and USB have specs to run over it, and chips should be available by the end of the year. By Jan 2005, I expect all new Macs, iPods, and Apple displays to include UWB. Soon after that happens (iTMS’ 2nd birthday in April?), I hope Apple will have convinced the movie studios to sell/rent downloaded movies over the Internet (legally, that is).
May 15th, 2004 at 10:09 pm
umm… no MP3, AAC or AIFF? there’s not a standard file format that this device supports. so, no thanks. i’ll keep my iPod.
and transferring video over wireless-G? that to me seems like it would take a horrendously long time. i’ll stick to a 50MB/sec firewire cable any time. and last time i checked, there aren’t any TVs with wireless receivers in them.
thanks anyway sony.
May 16th, 2004 at 1:07 pm
One thing we should not forget in all of this…. The iPod is a HUGE hit because its beautifully designed (mini & iPod) both functionally and aesthetically……………Unfortunately the Sony looks clumsy to use and is Pig Ugly…..Who really cares about loads of features??
iPod is King - No Contest.
May 16th, 2004 at 2:07 pm
The real bottom line is, more competition, more price differentiation, which swings buyers and brings down prices. Agree with your analogy to some degree but there may be those out there who see an advantage of having a the ability to squint, work in a proprietary system, and carry around a bunch of accessories to practice their juggling act at the airport.
May 16th, 2004 at 9:41 pm
Apple should keep iPod a music player and avoid movie integration with the device. People want to watch entertainment on their entertainment systems in their living rooms. Perhaps Apple should create a PVR/DVD Player w/ a hard drive and compatibility with mp3/AAC/wma and Quicktime files. Hook it to your television, and you get all of your multimedia on your stereo/tv. Apple can call it “iFreebase.”
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