The insider scoop on what's so very wrong with Sony

An insider who works for Sony here in the US who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to us to give us the lowdown on what's coming next from the electronics behemoth and why they keep making insane decisions like refusing to put support for the MP3 format into their new Network Walkman NW-HD1 (pictured at right).

He was able to confirm the following for us:

• That the new Network Walkman NW-HD1 has a battery life of 30 hours and that a 30GB version is on the way;

• That Sony's VAIO division will release a personal video player here in Q1 of next year with a 4-inch screen that will be about 5"x4"x1" in size that will sync up with their Connect service for online downloads of videos;

• And that three different divisions, VAIO, Walkman, and SEL are all planning to introduce digital audio players and portable video players over the next few months.

So why is Sony stumbling? Because of the internal struggle to get Sony Corporation of America to understand that without support for Windows Media, DivX, etc., a personal video player cannot succeed. All the different divisions in Tokyo are sparring over formats and DRM and are out of touch with consumers.

He then goes on to say that the source of the problem lies in Japan, which wants to force products on consumers to buy products by only using standards that people need their special devices to listen to or view. He believes that the debate over which formats to support will continue on past this first wave of new products we're seeing, and that another contact at Sony, one who deals with high-level executives in Tokyo, told him that the company's top leadership makes decisions based on what is popular Japan and feels that what they make should be based only on what Japanese consumers like (see MiniDisc). They refuse to pay attention to other trends around the world and that this has been a problem for a few years, such that regardless of how models without MP3 support fare, you won't see them discontinued.

So completely disappointing, but what's saddest of all is that we probably didn't need an insider to tell us that there's something wrong in the House of Sony. It's been obvious for a while now.</>

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

The Clie was the first thing to go - Im sure there will be others - There are plenty of other capable companies of being the next SONY here in the US for handhelds and whatever.... that are MUCH cheaper and use standards that the US consider is happy with.... if not ONE company, then many. So you seriously need 3 divisions for portable music players? I have one word for you SONY......

You. Are. Stupid. :)

[sanjay gupta @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

I bought a sony HI MD walkman. The reason I opted for it was it has microphone in recording unlike apple ipod and I wanted to record lectures.It records fine, but i was in for a nasty surprise. I can transfer my recording only ONCE to a computer. This is MY recording not any music. You bet i wont be recommending this gadget to anybody sony has gone nuts.

[Scott Trotter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

In general, I tend to really like Sony products. I'd really like to own one of the ultralight Sony laptops, or even the U71 palmtop, but I won't consider it for one simple reason: Memory Stick. Having a built-in flash card reader is a Really Good Idea, but Memory Stick just needs to go away. There should be only 2 standard form factors for flash cards: Compact Flash (CF) for high capacity needs, and Secure Digital (SD) for high portability needs. As long as Sony insists on supporting Memory Stick and nothing but Memory Stick on their consumer gadgets--including cameras, camcorders, pdas, media players, computers, et cetera--I won't buy them. Period.

[james @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

To #3: I completely agree with you that CF and SD should be the only compact flash form factors, period. I already have a ridiculous 12-in-1 Sandisk memory card reader, and don't want to upgrade to a 30-in-1 in 2 years. Sony does support Compactflash in addition to memory stick on their two highest end digital cameras, the DSC-F828 and the other model below it. They figured anyone who spends more than $500 on a camera will do their research, putting them at a disadvantage if they didn't support Compact Flash. The rest of the zombies who walk into Best Buy and buy the smallest camera with the most megapixels (irregardless of the crappiness of each pixel due to the tiny CCD size) -- those zombies don't care or know what a memory stick vs compact flash is. They just ask, "how many pictures can I take with this camera"...and don't try to confuse their little pea brains by mentioning JPEG compression levels or user selectable resolutions which affect "how many pictures you can take with this camera".

[james @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

To #3: I completely agree with you that CF and SD should be the only compact flash form factors, period. I already have a ridiculous 12-in-1 Sandisk memory card reader, and don't want to upgrade to a 30-in-1 in 2 years. Sony does support Compactflash in addition to memory stick on their two highest end digital cameras, the DSC-F828 and the other model below it. They figured anyone who spends more than $500 on a camera will do their research, putting them at a disadvantage if they didn't support Compact Flash. The rest of the zombies who walk into Best Buy and buy the smallest camera with the most megapixels (irregardless of the crappiness of each pixel due to the tiny CCD size) -- those zombies don't care or know what a memory stick vs compact flash is. They just ask, "how many pictures can I take with this camera"...and don't try to confuse their little pea brains by mentioning JPEG compression levels or user selectable resolutions which affect "how many pictures you can take with this camera".