Sony goes after iPod in Japan

[Steve]

To be quite honest I'm sick of the term 'iPod killer'. Perhaps that's becase ever 'iPod killer' ever launched... hasn't killed off the iPod. So, we'll not use that term in this story any more, OK?

Anyway, Sony is, in Japan at least, making some ground on Apple and their trendy white portable music player. They've pushed the iPod Shuffle into second place in the flash-based player market, although iPod remains top dog among hard-drive based players.

Translating that success overseas will not be easy, but boosting sales in Japan is an important first step for Sony as it tries to reclaim the lead in the portable audio market it helped pioneer with the Walkman cassette player 26 years ago.

[CNN]

[rc55]

Sony have a strong market presence in Japan and the shuffle-minus-display just doesn't cut the mustard out there (the Japanese love features generally). I'm just glad they didn't remove the play button!

Ruairi

[iMc]

I can't stand the stupid Sony software... do they still force you to use that?

[iMc]

They used to use a format called ATRAC3 and the software auto-converted the songs you wanted to put on the player. Dunno if they still do this, but I'm pretty sure you still have to use their software...

[=TcQi=]

Yeah its called SonicStage. Although I think the newer flash/hdd based players have support for mp3 (without the need for conversion).



TcQi

[ajbrun]

Looking good.

Could be the very ipod-killer we've all been waiting for .

[=TcQi=]

I've just got a rather sleek black (noir if your sony) HD5. First impressions of the unit are good - smaller than my RH900 Hi-MD and the battery life seems more than adequate (~3hrs/day lasted 2 weeks before needing a re-charge!)



The transfers speeds are an improvement over the Hi-MD unit as well, although I can't compare it to any other HDD based players. The average time to transfer an 5mb MP3 (the NW-HD5 plays mp3s without the need to re-encode) is ~5secs.

The only major niggle I've come across so far is the lack of a Remote - but its not too much of a biggy (for me) as most MD player remotes work with the unit!

I'll try and post some pics once I've got some webspace sorted!


=TcQi=

[krazy_olie]

Ipods are way to overrated, they are such average players. Sony would be the best if it wasn't for it's software and format stuff. Creative in my opinion offers the best value by far, especially for regular pc users, with iRiver probably being the best overall.

[TheAnimus]

HD3 also supports MP3 without re-encode right out of the box.
HD1 can be firmware upgraded to do this.

Krazy olie, sony's own format is very very good, and provides stagering batterylife. The problem is their over zelous DRM, this is because of openMG (code named Symphony) a quick google will let you find the problems with sony records making more money than sony electronics, this helped in the desiging of openMG (sonicstage) which is designed to bridge the gap and please everyone.

Their flash player is by far and away the best, no one can deny, the organic LCD screen just looks amazing, i saw someone on a train with one, and could easily read their track from about 5 seats away. Awsome quality.

The let down with the HD3/5/1 is the interface on the device, size, weight, batterylife beat all the others hand down. Build quality it seams to be the best.

The creative ones have a habbit of having battery issues, not as a cronic as apples thou.

[krazy_olie]

I have no problem with the sound quality of the sony format, it sounded quite good to my ears, my mate has an hd-3 and he really likes it except for the way it shells the mp3 file or something. If i get money to buy a player I would love to get a sony one because specs wise they probably are the best, just I like to use Windows media player along with artist/album folders to organize my music and most of it is WMA so I fear it would be a nightmare to sort it all out.

However for someone who doesn't have any music on their computer already and only uploads it for use on their mp3 player then the sony, i believe, is the best solution.

[Gunbuster]

The old Vaio Pocket Util (which the HDx series is based on) works with the HDx series, this allows drag and drop transfer. Not quite as good as full WMP support. I don't have a HDx but I was looking into getting one before I was hit by a spate of failing electronics.

[sdl]

Talking about the pocket vaio - I bought one for my gf


Updated the firmware to convert it into an mp3 player and use the latest sonicstage software (3.2 I think).

[javalord]

The ipod will remain popular whist every joe blogs consumes one. Most of them dont really care if its superior or not. Hell, most people dont even spend time researching alternatives.

So long as they can wear it like a fashion accessory and prove to their mates that they've spent yet another £200 on their credit cards.

That's where every ipod 'killer' has failed - penetrating the ipod's actual popularity.

[herulach]

What sony actually need to do is advertise, i personally dont like the HD5 on a looks front, but i know damn well that basically tehy could surround an ipod with the various different colours in an advert to illustrate the size difference then theyd sell around a million times more. iPods are successful cos people think theyre cool, they just need educating to what we all know, anything sony makes is far cooler than anything anyone else makes, it might not be better, but its certainly cooler