Just a thought, how long did sony know of change

[joeseptuk]

Sony must have realised that they were going to be droping the sonicstage software, and the atrac format for sometime, 1 or 2 years I would have to think.

The release of the new mp3 models, and mp3 conversion tool, would have been in planning stage for at least a year, all of this is based on where I work, the company have to plan what on sales for the next year, and what stock is to be sold

If this is the case, surely we have a case, that they have allowed mp3 players whcih use atrac format, and if no firmware or even support for atrac, they have failed there customers.

If everyone knew at the time when they released the NW-A808, that in a couple of months sony would be no longer using atrac but allow mp3 files and drag and drop, would anyone have bought them, and what would it have done to there sales

[aob9]

Sony must have realised that they were going to be droping the sonicstage software, and the atrac format for sometime, 1 or 2 years I would have to think.

The release of the new mp3 models, and mp3 conversion tool, would have been in planning stage for at least a year, all of this is based on where I work, the company have to plan what on sales for the next year, and what stock is to be sold

If this is the case, surely we have a case, that they have allowed mp3 players whcih use atrac format, and if no firmware or even support for atrac, they have failed there customers.

If everyone knew at the time when they released the NW-A808, that in a couple of months sony would be no longer using atrac but allow mp3 files and drag and drop, would anyone have bought them, and what would it have done to there sales

They were probably sorting their corporate crap. Looking at the design of the NWZ-81* and the fact that the A80* has video drag and drop, it would be fair to suggest the move away from SS was intended for the A80* series originally............we got caught.

[socom]

you get the sign that they were planning to move away, at least when Atrac forum early this year delivered the news on NWD-B. I agree maybe 1 yr or 2 yrs for the plan. I am not going to buy any walkman for now, since i really don't need any. In the future I do wish that despite Atrac or no Atrac, walkman can improved upon the design and the look than this year's offers.

[Zizone_]

I think this year was Sony's transition year, so alot of good and bad things happened. Sony's Walkman future shouldn't be judged by this year's performance or marketing alone. In fact, it was American consumers who wanted Sony to drop ATRAC and SonicStage (most of Sony's criticisms regarding ATRAC and SS came from US), which delayed NW-A800 series launch and gave birth to NWZ-810 and NWZ-610 series. This fact alone shows that Sony is still interested in U.S. consumers and willing to adopt new policy as poplulation's standars or demand changes. Hopefully, we will see more flexible policy is adopted by Sony to be competitive in U.S. market. At the same time, without trying for something new with full support, such as blu-ray, beta, ATRAC, etc., how can the new innovations prevail?

It will be interesting to see how Sony changes marketing plan accordingly to ever changing consumer demands.

Edited September 6, 2007 by Zizone