Why no non-Sony portables?

[Archivist]

This is the land of pure speculation. We can not know of why these companies have not made Hi-MD portables without direct knowledge, which is not easy to come by. But the question: why have we seen a complete lack of Hi-MD portables, players or recorders, from any company other than Sony?

Sharp has pulled out of the MD market in a number of countries. Panasonic hasn't made a decent MD portable for a while, unless you count the journalist's model from 2004. JVC? Who?

With companies like Onkyo making decks and bookshelf systems and releasing them regularly, you'd hope that there would be some portables, but we have yet to see anything. Most are speculating that the increase in mp3 player popularity has been seen as writing on the wall by other companies, who are pulling out of the MD market altogether.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

(My secret wish is that Sharp will surprise us all with a small but robust range of Hi-MD players and recorders, like a Hi-MD version of the DR77! We can all dream...)

~Archivist~

[Breepee2]

Too bad indeed. A nice Sharp (with Auvi) would do HiMD much good

[MDGB2]

The others saw the Iceberg!

Or probably its all due to Sony....

[tekdroid]

This is the land of pure speculation. We can not know of why these companies have not made Hi-MD portables without direct knowledge, which is not easy to come by.

Hmm, I dunno about that

*heavy discounting in Australia and around the world (they only discount what needs to move)

*concerns about MD's future

*low visibility or no visibility in stores/catalogues

*low mindshare in the general population (What's a MiniDisc? What's Hi-MD?)

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2005/index.html

...and an annual report that mentions:

Sales of headphone stereos declined as a

result of a significant decrease in the unit shipments of both CD

format and MD format devices due to a shift in demand towards

hard disc- and flash-based memory players. Worldwide shipments

of CD format devices decreased by approximately 3.68

million units to approximately 7.28 million units and worldwide

shipments of MD format devices decreased by approximately

1.44 million units to 1.92 million units. Sales of home audio

declined primarily due to a contraction of the market. On the

other hand, overall sales of car audio increased slightly due to

strong sales in the European market and Other Areas.

CD and MD have been hurt pretty badly, unit-wise. Remember these sales are for Sony only, and for all MD units. The trends would be similar in any other company with similar products, though. Considering Sony makes Hi-MD with virtually no competition, I don't think the market is very huge to split between several companies. It's unlikely others would even be interested too much given current trends; the focus is clearly on HD and flash for portable playback.

There could be an upswing for Sony and MD, but it will take some marketing and more user-friendly software - at the very least. A better product in both software and hardware would be welcomed. It won't matter too much if the focus is gonna be pro use - it is the best recorder for the money - but the least they could do is make the marketing reflect that fact.

It's clear not many of the masses are interested. I tried to get several people to buy into MD at the discounted prices in Australia, but they refuse...and I cringe when thinking of SonicStage and having to explain that to them). Seriously.

[p4cman]

I guess Sony just beats them in the MD market, by making better players. I'm also just speculating, since I haven't tried any out. But even if they made equally good players, given the choise, I'd still go for Sony. Through personal expirience, I think they are the most reliable out there.

[Sparky191]

Modern business chases the fast buck, and the big bucks only. Which is why niche music and games are finding it hard to get published and distributed. Same with MD. Its simply a smaller market and everyones concentrating on the bigger markets instead.

However smaller companies are quite happy with the profits to be made in niche markets. So maybe a leaner keener Sony might decide to keep MD, if its still making money for the company.

[AMPlitude]

im pretty sure that at this point, the minidisc format has only been on the decline for sony, so thats the critical factor for their wanting out of the format