It’s going to be the first one to use the “Walkman” name, and looks really nice. It has a 20GB drive and supports ATRAC3 files only. Sony claims that it has space for 13,000 songs, but that’s if you encode them at 48kbps. Battery life is said to be in the 25-30 hour range, pretty nice considering my iPod mini gets about 7. It’ll be available in Japan in a little over a week for about $500.
Personally, I think Sony could have done so much more with this, the ATRAC3-only and low capacity for the price kind of kills it. Don’t they already have a few more HDD-based players out now? It’ll be interesting to see how gr00vy likes the one he’s testing.
Yes, looks like a neat model. I just wish it was cheaper too….BTW, VAIO Pocket with 40 Gig will be available in the US in September. for $500 as well.
==I am not sure how Sony is trying to move Ipod from the market…releasing new HD players with huge price tags…..we’ll see I guess.
Stan
Alone the fact that it only supports ATRAC kills it for me. Am I missing something or is there no point to releasing a device that supports a proprietary format which is then more expensive than any other HDD based player?
I love Sony’s products (see Sony whore thread), but the spin on this is crazy stuff. I got a kick out of:
“It is expected to sell for around Â¥53,000, or $487, in Japan and less than $400 in the United States, Sony said, undercutting Apple’s 40-gigabyte device, which sells for $499 and can hold up to 10,000 songs.”
I’d certainly hope a 20GB device could undercut a 40GB device pricewise. As for the more songs claim, 48kbps ATRAC3 vs. 128 kbps AAC/mp3 is quite a difference in space. If it supported mp3 I’d be all over it for the sleek design alone.
Part of it was because Sony bought an insignificant media company…if Sony didn’t own Epic and the other music companies I believe that they would already have MP3 devices out. It’s the paranoia of this arm of Sony that’s kept them from really making any headway into the market. Also, their reluctance to open up the ATRAC format to others has hurt it as well. Lastly, their poor software implementation keeps their technology from really being accesible. SonicStage 2.0 is piece of crap software. Sony should focus less on trying to make new interfaces and spend more time on actual usability. I love iTunes because you can drag and drop files in and out of it and it just makes sense.
I know it’s probably more complicated than that but that’s my theory.
[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Part of it was because Sony bought an insignificant media company…if Sony didn’t own Epic and the other music companies I believe that they would already have MP3 devices out. It’s the paranoia of this arm of Sony that’s kept them from really making any headway into the market. Also, their reluctance to open up the ATRAC format to others has hurt it as well. Lastly, their poor software implementation keeps their technology from really being accesible. SonicStage 2.0 is piece of crap software. Sony should focus less on trying to make new interfaces and spend more time on actual usability. I love iTunes because you can drag and drop files in and out of it and it just makes sense.
I know it’s probably more complicated than that but that’s my theory.
Nope, its on the ball. Sony is a record company, the others, Apple, Walmart, Best Buy, all have no interest if Mp3s take over the world and CDs are no longer produced.
so true u 2! and was up with sony interface design? looks like they let monkeys with art historian degrees out of thier cages. makes u wanna use DOS again after looking at that stuff:twisted:
[quote author=“tifosiv122”]Nope, its on the ball. Sony is a record company, the others, Apple, Walmart, Best Buy, all have no interest if Mp3s take over the world and CDs are no longer produced.
Apple probably wouldn’t mind if the CD died. Quite honestly, if they could recover costs with just digital downloads, the record companies would dump their CD manufacturing interests in a second. They have a lot of money tied up in physical records. If the records don’t get sold, they get returned to the distributer and destroyed… but the label eats the cost. Considering that only one out of ever ten records is a money-making success, that’s a huge liability that just evaporates with the CD gone.
gr00vy: I’d hardly call Columbia and Epic insignificant.
[quote author=“Drachen”]gr00vy: I’d hardly call Columbia and Epic insignificant.
Yeah, i guess i meant…
Why did a huge and powerful company like Sony, which had the money to buy these other companies, have to bow down to the pressures of a “smaller” company? :?:
[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Why did a huge and powerful company like Sony, which had the money to buy these other companies, have to bow down to the pressures of a “smaller” company? :?:
Ever met a record company executive or promotions guy? Imagine a whole company of them lobbying Sony management.
Q. What’s the difference between a promo guy and a jet engine?
A. The engine’s quieter by about 5dB.
Actually yeah…i have. So I should know better. I worked for Warner Music Group for 1.5 years and yeah, you’re not kidding when you say that.
I’m just being irrational and naive. It’s just so frustrating to see a company that is capable of designing really good stuff making such boneheaded decisions. It’s hard work being a Sony customer…they make us work for it.
for $500 as well. 
