| Sony is dusting off the name "Walkman" to | | | | music store offered large-scale legal |
| compete with Apple's iPod. The Japanese are | | | | downloads of MP3 files. |
| building on their own music experience to | | | | |
| capitalize on the popularity of the smaller | | | | Sony won't give us any figures about their |
| MP3 player. | | | | sales and market share. Steve Jobs (CEO of |
| | | | Apple) has no problem with figures. Perhaps |
| In the eighties and nineties the Sony | | | | the major reason for this is how good they |
| Walkmans and Discmans were a part of everyday | | | | are. Apple claims about half a billion |
| life. But these days the MP3 player has | | | | downloads in a heavily growing market. |
| market dominance and the Japanese company has | | | | |
| faded. Apple and its iPod is now number one. | | | | The iTunes store is heavily focused on its |
| | | | cooperation with the iPod. This player is |
| Just last week both companies introduced new | | | | definitely the market leader among the more |
| MP3 players which will be in direct | | | | expensive MP3 players which have their own |
| competition with each other. Sony introduced | | | | hard disk. In the cheaper segment, MP3 |
| two players under the name "The New Walkman", | | | | players with the so called flash memory, the |
| while Apple released the iPod Nano. | | | | leaders are Creative, LG and iRiver. The iPod |
| | | | Shuffle with its flash memory couldn't do |
| Sony is using the name "Walkman" in the hope | | | | much about that. The negative sentiment about |
| that 26 years after the first introduction of | | | | the shuffle was mainly due to its lack of an |
| the famous cassette player that name still | | | | LCD screen and relatively high price. |
| has competitive value. However, we must | | | | |
| conclude that however great Sony's past | | | | With the iPod Nano Steve Jobs' Apple has a |
| accomplishments they have missed the boat in | | | | twofold challenge on its hands. Firstly there |
| the MP3 revolution in a major way. The main | | | | is the above-mentioned competition with Sony. |
| cause for Sony's failure is their stubborn | | | | Secondly, the new Apple player has a storage |
| refusal to give up the Attrac3 music format. | | | | space of 4Gb of flash memory and no hard |
| While the whole world was exchanging MP3 | | | | disk. |
| files it was only last year that Sony | | | | |
| introduced players that can handle this | | | | The iPod Nano is the successor to the iPod |
| format. | | | | Mini. Apple is constantly reducing the |
| | | | physical size and the prize of their players. |
| By that time Apple was just releasing its | | | | Their strategy seems to be to concentrate on |
| seventh generation of iPod-type players. | | | | iTunes as their major profit producer. |
| | | | |
| Sony now markets the NWA-1000 and NWA-3000. | | | | There is an interesting time ahead of us -- |
| These music players can directly communicate | | | | we will see heavy competition between Apple |
| with the Sony music store "Connect". It is | | | | and Sony both in the interconnected markets |
| also possible to copy files from the computer | | | | of the MP3 players and their respective music |
| directly to the players. | | | | stores. |
| | | | |
| Sony is well known for their activity in the | | | | Who will win? I don't know, but one thing I |
| music and film business. They must use their | | | | do know is that Apple was almost broke at the |
| position in this field to regain market share | | | | end of the last century. It has been under |
| and prestige in this interconnected industry. | | | | the leadership of Steve Jobs that Apple made |
| Interconnected because it seems that it is | | | | an almost miraculous comeback as a major |
| both Sony's and Apple's strategy to heavily | | | | player on the global market of |
| interconnect music player, software and music | | | | mini-electronics. |
| store. Apple's iTunes was the first Internet | | | | |