What are they thinking?

Via Insignificant Thoughts:
Sony doesn't get it:

Sony, well-regarded by gadget lovers for its design prowess, said the NW-HD1 will be the smallest 20-GB player on the market. It is slightly larger than a credit card and 12.6 mm thick – less than half an inch.

Sony said Toshiba Corp. developed the hard drives and the rest of the gadget was designed by Sony engineers.

The battery lasts 30 hours, at least three times longer than the iPod’s – a selling point that Sony plans to play up in promoting the device.

As with Sony’s other players, the NW-HD1 plays songs in the company’s proprietary ATRAC format only, meaning it is not compatible with other online stores and cannot play tunes in the popular MP3 format.

What!?

That is a major bummer, and that is a good reason why this thing won't sell too well.

Didn't Sony learn anything from its Betamax fiasco?

I personally have a 20GB Archos Jukebox. I looked at the Ipod, but it didn’t have the ability to record MP3’s in real time from any audio source, and that was a feature I really needed.

I intersperse files recorded off stations from XM satellite radio with songs copied from all of our CD's. It works great, and it is kind of having your own personalized radio station.

It makes the workday go easier. Yahoo!



- posted by total @ 7/02/2004 05:57:00 AM .