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| Friday, August 06, 2004 |
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Apple or Sony?
NEW YORK As the sappy pop song of yore goes, I’m torn between two lovers. I have a trusted Sony TV and a sleek Apple Webcam. I have gone between a Sony Vaio notebook computer and an Apple PowerBook laptop. I use Apple’s canny iPhoto software with my compact Sony digital camera.
But most importantly right now, I have a Sony MiniDisc player and an Apple iPod. Both companies are vying for me to strike my digital musical allegiance with them, in a brand war that each is staking its future on.
Clearly, I am a sucker for a good-looking, high-quality machine. I get my Sony affliction from my father, who adored his Trinitron color TV in the 1970s. The Apple habit came from my own appreciation of the iMac’s predecessor, the all-in-one-box Macintosh Classic.
We all have our idiosyncrasies. In my case, while visiting New York City this week, I made a point of visiting both the Sony Wonder Technology Lab exhibit in midtown and the landmark Apple store in SoHo. Souvenirs of my trip will include purchases of a Sony digital voice recorder and an Apple Airport Express wireless base station.
Okay, so now you can fathom the depths of my disease. I’m locked in the arms of not just one but two of the most creative, innovative and design- and marketing-savvy technology companies in the world.
The perennial rumors, always denied, of a Sony-Apple merger only demonstrate how closely allied their visions for consumer electronics are.
Now, with both Sony and Apple heavily touting their digital music offerings, how am I going to choose? And that is the major problem of Internet music commerce today: You almost certainly have to choose.
In an effort to lock consumers in to one brand, companies like Apple and Sony have made their systems incompatible with others outside of their ‘‘walled gardens.’’
A song purchased from the iTunes Music Store cannot be copied over to a portable Sony digital player to be savored on the go, for instance (one reason why Apple is so irritated that RealNetworks, another rival in digital music, last week arranged things so that it can play iTunes songs).
For obsessive early adopters like me, there is a lot to be said for the proverbial ‘‘first-mover advantage’’ in the corporate world. I signed up with the iTunes Music Store as early as I could, which much later led me to purchase an iPod.
Even though I already had a Sony MiniDisc player, which does a lot of the same things as an iPod (but also records), at the time Sony didn’t have an online music store, so I went with what has become the digital music market leader. Score one for Apple.
Now Sony has a full complement of digital tools — software, hardware and content — and by happenstance, I already have some of the pieces.
But Apple has such a wide lead that there’s not much reason to switch — today, that is. So far, the company has not missed a beat, Windowizing its digital jukebox software, expanding the features of its Internet store to include things like Billboard’s greatest hits from each year and churning out better iPod players.
But Apple, while scoring a survey-leading 24 percent gain this year in Interbrand’s assessment of the world’s most valuable brands, is still no Sony, remaining a fraction of the size and scope of the Japanese giant.
Already, Sony is reporting higher-than-forecast demand for its new digital music players. And Apple has long disavowed any interest in Sony’s other businesses, like mobile phones, video and recording — you can record to some iPods, but only with a third-party adapter — leaving Sony an open field.
I’m not placing bets on the long-term victor. Apple has floundered too many times in its history to be counted on, even now. And Sony, No. 20 in the global brand survey, could succeed, somewhat like Microsoft, on sheer size and momentum.
Still, in the short term, I’m grateful to be courted by such talented and clever gadgeteers. |
| posted by Perimbean @ 12:00 AM |
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