Thought At Walkman's 30th Birthday: Why Did Ipod Dominate The Media Market Nowadays?

[kaaamooo 0]

quote from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

Sony Walkman has turned 30 years old today. Thirty years ago, the device was revolutionary changed the way people listened to music. Sony sold 30,000 Walkmans in the first two months after its launch, and 50 million within a decade. It created the portable media player market. Three decades on, however, Sony is struggling against rivals such as Apple, which has enjoyed immense success with its iPod music player. Apple iPod might be the market leader today. While people celebrate Walkmanâs 30th birthday, I wonder what makes iPod became dominance in the media player market instead of the original Sony Walkman?

 

Sony Company has always been developing its video and audio products. Sony Walkmanâs latest flagship model, the NW-X1060, packs noise canceling, a bright touch screen display, mobile TV, and the ability to surf the Internet With the storage of 32GB, it can hold 8,000 songs (128kbps mp3) or 120h video playback (at 384kbps). It support all major file types includes MP3, MP4, WMA, AAC, Linear PCM, AVC, WMV, JPEG.

The Sony PSP Go will come in fall of this year. It is a much smaller, sexier device that drops the UMD, adds 16GB of flash RAM and Bluetooth, and compresses the older PSPâs brick-like form factor to a narrower, sleeker size and shape. Itâs got a huge amount of storage space for you to store music, videos and games. The files support MPEG-4, AVI video format and MP3 audio format.

Besides the multimedia player, Sonyâs phone also has powerful multimedia function. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is convergence of multimedia entertainment and mobile web communication. It has a 3.0 inches TFT touchscreen with shades of 65K internal screen colours and gives a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This let the users to play games and watch video clips on its wide screen easily. The video resolution support 640x480 pixels and video format support MPEG-4. The music format support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eACC+, WMA (including protected WMA).

By the way, a lot of people donât know where to get videos and songs when they take a Sony multimedia device. Some may purchase music and movies online. If you still donât know where to get or donât want to buy online, you may use Nidesoft DVD to Sony Xperia Converter to convert DVD files into your Sony device, or use Nidesoft Sony Xperia Converter to convert all other video files into Sony device. It can be used for all Sony products.

 

After look into Sony product, letâs turn our attention to iPod. Apple first released the original iPod in late 2001, and it was quickly destined to be a huge success. It was exactly what people wanted. It has simple interface, large capacity, fashionable, and visually attractive.

Simple Interface - The Apple iPod has an extremely simple interface, needing only a few seconds of use to be able to master it. It is very easy to use.

 

Large capacity - The current regular iPod has 8GB or 16GB capacity. It can holds large amount of songs and movies, enable you to enjoy them.

 

It's visually attractive â The appearance of iPod was fashionable. They made it look very sexy, appealing to just about everyone, and is now extremely recognizable.

 

Windows and Mac compatibility - When they crossed over to the windows market, they more than tripled their market, literally reaching anyone that owned a computer.

 

These are the things that really make the Apple iPod dominate the mobile MP3 player market, reaching over 70% of the market share. Apple never simply wanted to dominate the market with one product though, they're still releasing new products at an alarming rate, each of which are doing extremely well. From iPod Mini to iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, from first generation to second generation, third generation. The Apple iPod will never stop giving us surprise by improving its iPod products, and I think that is the most important reason why iPod lead the media player market.

[skedad 0]

Duuuuuude I am so old... I remember rocking the Walkman when I was younger. It was the coolest thing. It was all about the walkmans and the boom boxes. I had tons of cassette tapes to play for my player. The boom box was always taping from other tapes or from the radio. And now how many years later we are still recording from the radio... oh wait, no. We aren't recording from anything... at least legally nowadays. I think money changed it all. So of course my ranting got me off course, but it goes to show that old school was the way to go...Happy Birthday Walkman! It is two years younger than me....- skedad -

[FolkRockFan 0]

Ahh, yeah - I had knockoff Walkmans because my parents wouldn't spend extra money on the real deal. Fine by me, because I owned some decent portable tape players - just can't remember any of the brands. I had one water-resistant model that was bright yellow and managed to hold up despite being dropped several times...not bad for ten bucks, right?Of course, the headphones were always complete garbage. When I was in my early teens, Mom got me some over-the-ear, stereo headphones for my birthday. Koss, I think they were. They weren't too terribly expensive, but they had pretty-good sound quality and were way more durable than the default headphones with the small ear pieces and the thin, metal bands that went over your head.Not that I would happily go back to a Walkman, or one of the many knockoffs, mind you. Man, I wouldn't even go back to a portable CD player. Bulky, a very-limited amount of storage space compared to my Zune (first-gen model), and terrible on battery life.

[takerraj 0]

Here in India we have just shifted from these walkmans to portable electronic players. They are just awesome. But those who can't afford a computer still prefers these walkmans and cassettes. Right now in India, walkman still rocks, while iPod rocks only in Urban areas not in rural India.

[mahesh2k 0]

@KaammooSorry to object. But what this thread is doing in How-to and tutorial section ? . This thread shows information about 30 years of walkman. and it points to the some of the postings of blog. I think this is not the right section where you posted this. Ask moderators to move this thread to appropriate category.

[yordan 10]

@Kaammoo Ask moderators to move this thread to appropriate category.

You are right. I moved the topic here, where hopefully it's place is.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I still have my (now ancient) Walkman. iPods dominated the music market because it was a completely new way to listen to music and you don't have to worry about cassettes or CDs. You can walk around with the equlivelant of 1,000 CDs in your pocket. It helped to bring the MP3 to be popular, as MP3 is one of the few formats that can be played on an iPod.

[rvalkass 5]

Simple Interface - The Apple iPod has an extremely simple interface, needing only a few seconds of use to be able to master it. It is very easy to use.

I think I'm one of the only people in the world that has ever been confused or frustrated by the iPod's interface I think the interface can be a little too simple in places, which just annoys me, although obviously I appear to be in the minority. The same goes for the iTunes software - I just don't like the way it looks, feels and works.

It's visually attractive â The appearance of iPod was fashionable. They made it look very sexy, appealing to just about everyone, and is now extremely recognizable.

I actually like the design and look of some of Sony's players, especially their screens - the way they blend in with the rest of the player and appear natural, rather than standing out as a separate area on the surface of the player, like these: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ & http://www.synthtopia.com/images/Sony_walkman.jpg

I used to have the old cassette tape Walkmans, and the cheap clones, before moving on to portable CD players for quite a few years. I still try to buy as much of my music as possible on physical CDs rather than as downloads. Digital players are great, but I still like to keep a physical copy of my music.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I still try to buy as much of my music as possible on physical CDs rather than as downloads. Digital players are great, but I still like to keep a physical copy of my music.

I do that a lot as well. Though a buunch of the bands I listen to haven't hit it big yet, so I'd have to order thier music online and have it shipped to me, I still like buying physical CDs. Over the years I've come across some rare and very rare CDs, which you can't really find online