Poor Sony

Crap like this makes me a little mad. It’s not just style and marketing. iPods actually do something people want, something that was extremely difficult before they came out, and something that, while other companies are substantially better than they used to be, is still a stand-out user experience. Yes they are stylish, and well designed, but also very importantly, they play mp3s, they are a hard drive, they sync effortlessly for users of any level while still retaining features that power users want. They remain extensible (somewhat) enough that things like podcasting, which apple never saw coming, can be created on their platform, and increase their value a great deal.

This is not sony’s style. Sony knows what you want, and makes sure you only use it that way. Anyone remember ATRAC? In fact wikipedia has a whole section on sony’s proprietary formats.

So, good luck on that marketing campaign.