SF Chronicle Shines Spotlight On Walkman vs. iPod

by , 8:00 AM EDT, July 7th, 2004

The San Francisco Chronicle shines a detailed spotlight on the battle between Sony and Apple in the music player space. The article, fittingly titled "Walkman vs. iPod," offers not only some opinions on the nature of the fight between Apple's iPod and Sony's new Walkman NW-HD1, it also offers some history on the market, and other related, in-depth details on the subject.

Sony released the tiny, 20 GB digital music player, the NW-HD1, last week. While the 20 GB player is smaller and less expensive than Apple's 20 GB player, it supports only Sony's ATRAC3 format, offering support for the industry standard MP3 format only through a conversion process. Whether despite or because of its features and limitations, many have proclaimed it the first real competition for Apple in this space.

From the article:

Analysts say Sony poses the biggest challenge yet to the iPod, although they add that Apple should still be up to the challenge of defending a market that has become a key part of the company's overall success.

"We think this is the year Sony starts breathing down Apple's neck in music," said technology analyst Richard Doherty of the Envisioneering Group. "Customers who look to the iPod as the only advanced styling and fashion statement out there are going to take more than a second look at the Walkman."

In a broader sense, Sony's new Walkman devices signal the latest escalation in a battle between the traditional consumer electronics-makers and the newcomer computer-makers, which are all chasing after a growing consumer appetite for digital media and entertainment.

"We're approaching this with a broader and long-term view, not just looking at the next iPod version for the world," said Phil Wiser, chief technology officer for Sony Corp. of America. "We're not just a PC and a single device. We are looking at this as an overall strategic push for all of our products."

"This is not a three- or four-month struggle. We see this as a multiyear battle," Wiser said.

There is much more in the full article, and we recommend it as a very interesting read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Love it or hate it, Sony does indeed have the most potential for breaking Apple's dominance in the music player space. That's vaguely ironic considering the fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed on more than one occasion that he wants Apple to be the Sony of the computer world. Of course, it seems now that Sony wants to be the Apple of the computer world, and we can't begin to quantify the irony in that concept.

In the meanwhile, can Sony actually do it? The poorly named NW-HD1 is a dynamite-looking device, but we have our doubts that it will offer much of a threat to Apple, at least in its current form.

For one thing, the decision to only support ATRAC3 was a poor one, and we frankly do not think that Sony will be able to duplicate Apple's success in pushing its own proprietary format. Remember that Apple had a hit with the iPod before the iTunes Music Store was launched, and it supported MP3 as well as AAC. That made it a perfect choice for those who had either downloaded their music or ripped their own collections in MP3 (or AAC) before the iPod was even on the market.

ATRAC3 has no such built-in audience, at least not in the States, the world's biggest music market. Supporting MP3, to say the least, as well as Windows Media Audio (WMA) and/or AAC would have been a better choice for Sony in terms of getting people to give this thing a shot.

We would also add our voices to the chorus lamenting Sony's choice of a format name (ATRAC3) that so closely resembles "8-Track," a name loaded with so much baggage it should come with a wheelbarrow and someone to push it. Someone at Sony simply didn't do their homework on that one.

All of those things, however, are easy to fix. Indeed, if we may say so, it would be easy, peasy, Japanesy to fix. Should Sony do so, Apple will have far more of a threat on its hands. If not, we believe that Sony will have moderate success in Japan with this device, and little in the States. Europe will likely fall somewhere in between.

San Francisco Chronicle Article