12-12-2002, 05:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Sony to Consumer: Thanks For Your Loyalty, Now Buy More Stuff
"Sony is close to unveiling a new, higher capacity version of its popular Memory Stick removable flash memory card. But sources say it won't be compatible with older devices. Expected to be announced at next month's Consumer Electronics Show, the new Memory Stick uses a different architecture to achieve higher capacities than the original card, sources said. Current Memory Stick cards top out at 128MB, but the new cards will come in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities." :roll:
So those of you with memory stick devices, be it a Sony Clie, a Sony digital camera, Vaio with an MS slot, camcorder or Aibo are out in the cold. I have said it before. I despise proprietary solutions like the memory stick and about 95% of the other stuff Sony cranks out. Not because their products aren't good. They are good. In fact, they are great many times. But their proprietary nature means Sony can do what they want and as evidenced by this latest turn of events, will do what they want. Sony fans can only hope that new products that use the tentatively named Sony Memory Stick Pro products can use the older and now defunct Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo products so there is some measure of interoperability between your Sony products.
Keep this in mind the next time you are at an electronics store and the product you are pondering has a Sony proprietary slot.
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12-12-2002, 05:15 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 143
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This is going to KILL Sony! Basically any Sony product out from TVs to mice with MS in them will be incompatable with the new format, which will not only make all sony products obselete, but will also detract business from Sony. Digital camera owners are going to love Sony as well. Same with $2,000 AIBO & VAIO owners. The owners of Sony's overpriced $600 Clie's are going to adore Sony.
One other thing: with the MS-DUO cards be compatable with the new format?
Sony is desperately trying to recover from what the Betamax could have been... unfortunately, this is not going to help their cause one bit.
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12-12-2002, 05:23 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 80
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That's business for you. Sony obviously believes they can use the higher capacities to sell more products to existing customers by making what they have now obsolete. They're probably right.
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12-12-2002, 05:24 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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DAMN YOU SONY!!! I will never buy another memory stick enabled device ever again!!! :x :x :evil: :evil: :evil: :twisted: :twisted:
I _WAS_ looking forward to eventually being able to use a 256MB stick in my 1 grand cybershot camera. Does Sony want me to go out and spend another cool grand on a camera. This is Sony�s way of saying:
Merry Christmas!!! Now bend over and get what is coming to all those that trusted us.
[INSERT A THREE PARAGRAPH STRING OF PROFANITIES HERE.]
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12-12-2002, 05:25 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 5
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Hmm. Must be the evil-empire Sony and their devil-worshipping marketing people that came up with this scheme.
No way at all it could be a physical limitation of the existing memory stick, or some other improvement (i.e. greater bandwidth by adding more pins to the bus ?) that is driving the change ?
Anybody ever stop to ponder the thought that maybe Sony NEEDED to make the change in order to get higher capacity memory sticks ?
And this won't make your current memory stick devices stop working with current memory sticks people. New devices will handle the higher capacity cards. Seems pretty simple to me...
But go ahead and bitch about Sony and proprietary and boycotts and how evil they are.
Personally, I think Sony makes good stuff, and I will continue to buy it if it's well designed and useful. Proprietary memory cards and all...
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12-12-2002, 05:37 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Hey, maybe Sony will jointly advertise their new Memory Stick with their Label Gate system...
"Get the new Memory Stick and we'll give you half off the price to rip your first song using Label Gate technology!!"
You know, most power users I know don't invest in Memory Stick but a lot of casual users I know do. What I'm dreading is that at some point in the future when they do upgrade to a new digicam or a new Sony Clie, they might think, "well... I don't have any investments in other removable media, so I lose nothing by going with Sony again..."
Obviously power users will quickly note that if they had invested in something other than Sony initially they wouldn't have to worry about this, but then again, these aren't power users... and there's a reason Sony is able to charge so much more $$ for their products than their competition... b/c people continue to buy... many people feel more secure in purchasing Sony over other products...
I hope I'm wrong though...
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12-12-2002, 05:41 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtallon
Anybody ever stop to ponder the thought that maybe Sony NEEDED to make the change in order to get higher capacity memory sticks ?
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THen people shouldn't invest in a product led by a company with such short-sightedness. They said last year (2001) that capacities higher than 128MB were coming. Meanwhile, CF has 3-4GB cards in the works by Pretec and SD cards have 512MB availabe and up to 4GB testing in Panasonic's labs.
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12-12-2002, 05:42 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 209
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My CF and SD cards work remarkably well with a multitude of products. I love having media types shared between my Canon Digital Camera and my PDA.
If you are under the illusion that Sony does not have somewhat suspect intentions, witness the newest Clie models with "CF" slots. Well, that's really CF, kind of, but not really. Yes it is a CF slot if you are only planning on using Sony's "CF" WiFi card or other Sony "CF" cards. Now this Memory Shaft, I mean Stick, thing? Come on kids. Open your eyes! 8O
There are plenty of other electronic and computer manufacturers out there making quality products. I will admit that Sony does make it's own fair share of fine products, but there are just too many fish in the sea to possibly shoot myself in the foot with them.
BETAMAX RULES!!!
I kill me!
8)
P.S. I think it follows that Sony will likely stop making the Memory Shafts up to 128mb on the old architecture and make them only on the new architecture. That hasn't been announced or leaked or documented, but if history tells us anything......
__________________
And there you are.
I was just thinking, "What could take this headache I have over that edge to a full blown migrane?"
And there you are.
- Dr. Cox, Scrubs
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12-12-2002, 05:45 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 66
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Not surprising at all...
Remember - this is the company that tries to sell you MP3 playing devices, whilst protecting it's CD's so you can't rip them :roll:
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12-12-2002, 05:46 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 143
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtallon
But go ahead and bitch about Sony and proprietary and boycotts and how evil they are.
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Ok, then we will! :wink:
Sony might have needed to update their memory stick format, but I have a feeling that the new lower capacity cards will have the same design as the new high capacity cards in order to "standardize" However, if this happens, then not only will you be stuck with low capacity but you won't be able to buy new cards at all!
In all honesty, I'm surprised that Sony didn't have the forethought to include a (potentially) limitless memory capacity in the design of their cards. Look at Compact Flash: about 5 years old, and 3GB versions are now in the works! Do you really think that five years ago the makers of CF thought that it would even be possible to store 3GB in a card that small? Probably not. However, they didn't eliminate the possibility, and that's the kind of forethought that I like to see from "standard" developers.
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