Familiarity and contempt

Apple Computer and Sony have a history that dates back to the use of Sony floppy drives in the original Macintosh. But now that the two companies are competing in the market for portable music devices, the relationship has gotten a bit icy.

In a statement sent to reporters Wednesday, Apple claims Sony is misleading the press and customers about the number of songs that can be stored on its new hard drive-based digital audio players. Sony said its 20GB Network Walkman can hold 13,000 songs using its proprietary ATRAC3 audio compression format, with a bit rate of 48 kilobits per second.

Apple says its 20GB iPod can store 5,000 songs using its own AAC format at a bit rate of 128kbps. After alleging that Sony's ATRAC3 format is "widely regarded as being inferior to most modern codecs, such as AAC and WMA," Apple said Sony needs to use a higher compression bit rate of 132kbps to have playback quality that is equivalent to Apple's iPods. At 132kbps, Sony's Network Walkman can store 4,800 songs.

Indeed, Apple pointed out that the Sony Connect music service sells songs recorded at a bit rate of 132kbps. (Sony executives were not immediately available for comment.)

Meanwhile, Apple's got its own bad press to worry about. In a recent story, the New York Times said Apple did not do a good job warning consumers that by downloading files at 128kbps, they are getting essentially a "freeze-dried" version of the song that can't be reconstituted into CD quality.