Sony to upgrade Walkman to challenge iPod

Company will offer two disk-based players, with 20GB and 6GB of storage, and three flash-memory-based players.
Photos: New Walkmans to step out

The story "Sony to upgrade Walkman to challenge iPod" published September 8, 2005 at 6:23 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[mrobzo]

The pace of technology

Panasonic has announced that by 2007 it will have a 16GB and a 32GB SD card in production. Now how do you suppose that will effect the major players.

[KTLA_knew]

Hard disk?

Now, I have a Creative Zen, and think that dollar for dollar, it beats the iPod Mini on every front, but even I know the day of the mini disk drive players has got to be over.

What's the point of a 4-6GB drive player when for just a bit more (and soon to be LESS) money you can get a flash memory player? The hard drive is to big, slow to spin up, and power hungry, just can't compete.

This is the very first time I think that Apple has the best product on the market with the new Nano. I'm not aware of any other players like it, though someone feel free to correct me if there are others.

Go Apple! You actually did it right from a technology standpoint, not just marketing this time!

[mrobzo]

The pace of technology

Panasonic has announced that by 2007 it will have a 16GB and a 32GB SD card in production. Now how do you suppose that will effect the major players.

[KTLA_knew]

Hard disk?

Now, I have a Creative Zen, and think that dollar for dollar, it beats the iPod Mini on every front, but even I know the day of the mini disk drive players has got to be over.

What's the point of a 4-6GB drive player when for just a bit more (and soon to be LESS) money you can get a flash memory player? The hard drive is to big, slow to spin up, and power hungry, just can't compete.

This is the very first time I think that Apple has the best product on the market with the new Nano. I'm not aware of any other players like it, though someone feel free to correct me if there are others.

Go Apple! You actually did it right from a technology standpoint, not just marketing this time!

[Steve Bryan]

Music source?

The article does not seem to pay much attention to the topic of how you get music to put on Sony's players. Although I think it is safe to speculate they will continue to be unable to play tracks purchased from iTunes Music Store (by far the largest and probably best source), it would be nice if the topic were covered. The article does mention Connect, a service for this purpose, but says little about it. How much do tracks cost? How good is the selection, etc?

A sane person with a large CD collection needs to know how cumbersome it is to use these tracks. Sony's inflexibility about using their own MiniDisc derived format has only recently shown any awareness of reality.

If they hope to make any progress, the entire system has to show great improvement. That means download service, track management on PC's and Macs and the actual portable player. People who dismiss the iPod as a fluke with only uninformed people as fans don't seem to understand that much of its success is owed to how well iTunes (on Mac and PC) and iTunes Music Store are designed and integrated with the iPod.

[Steve Bryan]

Music source?

The article does not seem to pay much attention to the topic of how you get music to put on Sony's players. Although I think it is safe to speculate they will continue to be unable to play tracks purchased from iTunes Music Store (by far the largest and probably best source), it would be nice if the topic were covered. The article does mention Connect, a service for this purpose, but says little about it. How much do tracks cost? How good is the selection, etc?

A sane person with a large CD collection needs to know how cumbersome it is to use these tracks. Sony's inflexibility about using their own MiniDisc derived format has only recently shown any awareness of reality.

If they hope to make any progress, the entire system has to show great improvement. That means download service, track management on PC's and Macs and the actual portable player. People who dismiss the iPod as a fluke with only uninformed people as fans don't seem to understand that much of its success is owed to how well iTunes (on Mac and PC) and iTunes Music Store are designed and integrated with the iPod.

[R. U. Sirius]

Vertically Integrated

The Sony player will only play songs from the Sony label is what I read on a another site.

Sorry, I'm sticking with the iPod.

[R. U. Sirius]

Vertically Integrated

The Sony player will only play songs from the Sony label is what I read on a another site.

Sorry, I'm sticking with the iPod.