iPod Walkman wars
p2pnet.net News:- Apple says Sony’s claims about its new Walkman’s capacity are way off.
"In a prepared statement, Apple said Sony isn’t accurately depicting the song capacity of its new 20-gigabyte Network Walkman," says a Wall Street Journal story here.
"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."
As a result, Apple said, Sony’s Walkman actually holds only 4,800 songs that have been compressed into a higher quality format.
"That Apple, which is normally tight-lipped about its products, will now engage in a war of words with Sony shows how far the Cupertino, Calif., company will go to protect the market share lead that its iPod digital music player has gained over the past few years," says the WSJ.
Todd Schrader, Sony Electronics’ vp of portable audio products, is quoted as saying the "Walkman has always been about choice" and that "Sony isn’t a one-trick pony".
July 8th, 2004 at 3:55 pm
Todd Schrader, Sony Electronics’ vp of portable audio products, is quoted as saying the “Walkman has always been about choice” and that “Sony isn’t a one-trick pony”.
I agree, Apple will soon be crushed, lol they deserve it, let the bastards kill each other in the market place. It can only be good for the consumer who has been worked over recently.
Jeez, Apple’s a little nervous I think. And besides, this is the first incarnation of the ‘new’ walkman, wait a little while until things really get rolling, now if only Sony wasn’t just as bad as the rest of them it’d really be something to celebrate.
TT
July 8th, 2004 at 4:12 pm
I wouldn’t worry all that much. The thing can’t play mp3s or anything but what you encode or buy off the Sony site. I can’t imagine it having much of an impact on the market.
I wouldn’t buy one of those things unless it cost under $100. Piece of trash.
July 8th, 2004 at 4:23 pm
Just further proof that Sony has lost its mojo along the way! Why anyone would want to take their mp3s and recompress them to Sony’s ATRAC format (at a rediculously low bit rate) is beyond me. Sony’s online music store has been widely reported to be a real crash prone embarrassment as well. Sony is also trying to copy Apple’s style of retail store. I find it incredible that a company such as Sony that has had such brand recognition over the years could be so out of touch and asleep at the wheel. A friend of mine who swears by Sony’s MiniDisc laughs at Sony’s hard drive based music player. I think Sony is going to find that they have released a real stinker and that the public is not so stupid that they will fall for it.
July 8th, 2004 at 7:54 pm
July 8th, 2004 at 7:59 pm
People will buy it just because it’s got f*ck-all to do with Apple. Apple’s got good PR, not good systems. Without that it would be nothing.
Morgan
July 8th, 2004 at 8:50 pm
It’ll be funny to see what Apple does once Microsoft steps into the game.
“Mr. Jobs, Microsoft just released their portable music player and it’s way better than ours for a fraction of the price. . .come to think of it, everyone’s players are better than ours at a fraction of the price.”
“Nevermind that, rally the Mac lemmings and prepare a PR statement. It’s time to crank that Reality Distortion Field to full power. “