Jari Ketola
23 Jan 2005 14:28
President of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) Ken Kutaragi has stated that Sony has missed out on the sales of MP3 players and other gadgets by sticking to proprietary formats such as ATRAC. ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) is a psychoacoustic audio coding and compression system used exclusively by Sony in, for example, MiniDisc devices and Sony Connect online music store.
According to Kutaragi he and other Sony employees have been frustrated with the company's reluctance to release products that support the more popular MP3 format, such as the Apple iPod. The reason for the reluctance was mostly because Sony, which is also a major player in the music and movie industry, has had concerns about content rights.
The tables are slowly turning at Sony, and Kutaragi sees that new devices, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP) will help Sony to reach levels of success it enjoyed in the past with Walkman and other innovative products.
Sony is boosting production to one million a month this spring to keep up with demand for the PSP. The device has sold over 800,000 units in Japan since going on sale December 12th. US and European launches are set for this spring.
Source: Forbes