The company which invented the walkman and created a new niche with it has now got its ear to the ground. The latest Walkman music player to emerge from their workshop seems to be a hybrid of sorts. Sony’s new NW-HD3 allows users to import and export tracks in the MP3 format. Clearly, this is a concession to MP3’s universal popularity. It also appears to be a coming-to-terms admission. For it had pinned great hopes on Atrac - a software that vied with the MP3 format. As the world market preferred the MP3 format, Sony had to surrender its ambition and enhance the compatibility of its music player with a view to attract a wider share of the market.
Nevertheless, it still has the competitive edge and is a challenge to Apple’s iPod – the current leader in the personal music players market. Although the NW-HD3 is more expensive than the iPod by 15 percent, it plays more than twice as long as an iPod on a single battery charge. It features a 20 GB hard drive. By year ending it should be available to markets in the UK for £249(US$462). By early next year, it would be available across Europe at approx. €369.
Although the market for personal music players is currently dominated by Apple's iPod, Sony has never been away from center-stage. During the last two and a half decade, Sony has become a ‘top-of-mind’ name worldwide for walkmans of various types, which include CD players and MiniDisk models. The NW-HD3 seems like an attempt to reclaim lost ground.
Whether or not Sony manages to regain its position, it is clear that the MP3 format has changed the topography of the market with more contenders in the field. Following Sony’s debut of its MP3 player in Amsterdam, the Paris-based company Thomson SA announced a new variation on the MP3 format that accommodates multi-channel playback. The system called ‘MP3 Surround’ will support 5.1 channel sound for applications with web-based music distribution, broadcasting systems, PC-related audio-visual or gaming applications, consumer electronics and automotive systems. It was developed using “binaural cue coding” by the Thomson SA’s associates Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) and Agere Systems, Inc. The company claims that this version would be compatible with any existing MP3 software and hardware device.
The Fraunhofer IIS site offers free evaluation software for those interested.
MP3 is the wave sweeping across the world today. Even audiophiles have had to bow to its immense versatility. It can be found in toys, gifts, pendants, wristwatches, sunglasses, etc. This Christmas you will be seeing a spate of Music Buddies - children's toys, like stuffed animals, that have built-in MP3 players. These come pre-loaded with approximately 25 songs and have function buttons built into their legs, on their backs and on headphone jacks. Grown-ups who can afford to spend a little more can toy with a Swedish gold-plated MP3 playing necklace. It will set you back by approx. £600 ($1100). Branded as the Excentrique MP-400 it has a 200-song capacity, and would be just the thing for someone who uses a jewel-encrusted cellphone.
MP3’s versatility even takes it underwater. Swimmers can now take waterproof personal music players (from companies like Swimman Inc. and Finis, Inc.) along for their daily dip. As long as technology keeps making great advances in miniaturization and as prices keep falling, there will continue to be a song on our lips and a rhythmical spring in our step. And whatever brand we buy we will always remember that one brand started it all; and that is Sony.
