Sony trying to bite into Apple's iPod market share

Sony trying to bite into Apple's iPod market share

Personal stereos have come a long way from the days of cassette tapes, with major manufacturers now battling for consumers’ attention with functions such as video capability.

The market leader is Apple Inc.‘s incredibly popular iPod, but market veteran Sony Corp. is in hot pursuit with its latest range of Walkman products.

Sony’s first generation of Walkman cassette players went on sale in July 1979. It was a groundbreaking product that, for the first time, enabled people to listen to their own music without disturbing others. Worldwide Walkman sales totaled about 370 billion yen as of the end of fiscal 2006.

Apple released its first iPod in November 2001. It enabled users to transfer their entire music collection onto its hard drive and listen anywhere they liked.

According to market research firm BCN Inc., the iPod has had about a 50 percent share of the portable music player market in Japan since 2005. The second-place Walkman had about a 20 percent share of the market in 2006, but has closed the gap to nearly 30 percent since April this year.

The iPod is known for its elegant design and user friendliness. Users can use Apple’s iTunes software to select and purchase more than 5 million music and video tracks.

Masamitsu Sakurai, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, is also a fan of the iPod. He said he edits the track sequence on his computer, and listens to the music from his iPod on his home or car stereo.

In September, Apple released the iPod Nano with video capability, and the iPod Touch, utilizing a touch screen control panel. An eight-gigabyte memory Nano retails at a nominal price of 23,800 yen, and an eight-gigabyte Touch is on the market at 36,800 yen.

The extensive iPod range includes the 15-gram one-gigabyte Shuffle and the 160-gigabyte Classic.

Sony is pushing the quality of the Walkman’s Sony-developed acoustic technology. Music can be recorded onto it directly from a CD or MD player without the need for a computer. Song titles can be searched using kana syllabary and the accompanying software has been improved.