Sony's Vaio Pocket Gunning for iPod Blood

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4953313/' target='_blank'>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4953313/</a><br /><br /></div>"Sony Corp has created a buzz with the unveiling of a new digital music player, but analysts say it has a long way to go before it challenges the industry dominance of Apple Computer's popular iPod. Sony unveiled the new portable music player on Monday along with a slew of new VAIO-brand computers. Dubbed "Vaio pocket", it features a hard-disk drive capable of storing 13,000 songs and can store digital camera images too. It will be the first portable music player with an embedded hard-disk drive to be sold under the Sony brand name when it hits stores in Japan next month. Sony said that overseas launch dates have not been set..."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/040511_vaio_vmed2p.vmedium.jpg" /> <br /><br />I suppose I should be excited about this, because the hardware design looks impressive, but all I can do is yawn because Sony will screw this up somehow - I'm sure of it - by making it proprietary in the same way Apple has done, and I'll never use a device that only works with one online music store. :roll:

[Gary Sheynkman]

Well this is a japanese market device so 1) we might not see it 2) Sony only tends to screw over foreigners..it will be 2010 when we see this :lol:


Despite you "hate" for Sony, you have to realize that Memstick is not THAT bad if you have all sony products. Sony has done for the digital media world what apple has done for the Mac crowd..complete integration. Whether that is good or not is a different argument though. We will always have Mac vs. Windows debates as well as Sony vs. the world debates.

[Suhit Gupta]

Another article on the same subject here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/11/sony_vaio_pocket/

Suhit

[Zack Mahdavi]

It looks interesting, but seriously, is Sony trying to blow it? Sony can't force people to download music only from their online music store, simply because they don't have the marketshare to do that. I also can't believe it took the company this long to finally introduce a hard drive mp3 player.

One thing's for sure, though.... this player will do well in Japan with those that currently own MD players. I have a feeling that the well-established Sony brand name will push these new players much harder than Apple's current (and successful) attempts to sell their iPod in Japan. Who's going to win? That I don't know!

Also, is this player Sony's admittal of defeat to the mp3 market, or are they going to continue to actively develop MD players? Just about a week ago, they announced the new MD format, which looked pretty impressive. However, even though the format is so popular in Asian countries, I think its lifespan is limited now.

We'll have to wait and see.. :)