[access-uk] Sony plans Walkman to rival iPod
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 18:49:16 +0100
Hope some of you find this latest inbstallment of hard disk juke box wars of
some interest. No mention of the compression codec used, but most likely
some flavour of ATRAC. I'll bet the software that comes with this one will
be as per usual inaccessible. Window-Eyes users are certainly finding Sonic
Stage near unusable. Just hope that the same fate doesn't befall Soundforge
now that Sony own that.
All the best.
Ray.
Sony plans Walkman to rival iPod
Sony is to revamp its famous Walkman by launching a digital music player to
rival Apple's iPod, which has led the market since its 2001 launch.
Sony said its 20-gigabyte device would be about £55 cheaper than the top
iPod model, which has 40 gigabytes.
It is also aiming to boost use of its online music store Sony Connect, as
its Walkman will play songs only in the company's own format.
The Walkman hits Japan on 10 July, the US in August and Europe by September.
Last year Sony announced it was cutting 20,000 jobs as part of restructuring
to deal with sliding profits.
Sony said its Network Walkman NW-HD1 would sell for less than $400 (£219) in
the US.
This compares with $499 (£274) for the highest capacity iPod.
Sony says its device can hold 13,000 songs while Apple boasts the iPod can
store 10,000 songs.
But the two firms use different recording technologies which make like for
like comparisons difficult.
The Sony device will be incompatible with other online stores and cannot
play tunes in the popular MP3 format.
Small in size
It is slightly larger than a credit card and less than half an inch thick.
Sony said the battery lasted 30 hours, at least three times longer than the
iPod.
It also promised shock-resistant technology that protected the hard drive if
dropped.
Launched to mark the 25th anniversary of the original Walkman cassette
player, Sony said it had used advanced compression technology to pack more
songs in a smaller storage space.
It uses a 20-gigabyte hard-drive, compared with Apple's highest capacity 40
gigabyte models.
Sony said the NW-HD1would be the smallest player of its capacity on the
market.
Sony has sold 340 million Walkmans during the past 25 years, including
several million CD players.
Last month Apple's pioneering online music service iTunes was launched in
the UK, Germany and France, offering more than 700,000 songs for 79p or 0.99
euros each.
ITunes has proved enormously popular in the US, with about 85 million songs
downloaded since its launch in April 2003.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/music/3855745.stm
Published: 2004/07/01 11:14:42 GMT
© BBC MMIV
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