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November 28, 2005
In Japan, Apple's iPods over Sony MP3's
Japan Today is calling Apple's success in Japan "a low point for Sony and for the Japanese consumer electronics industry in general." iPods account for about 60% of the entire market for portable music players, and Apple now outsells sony for music players in its home.
Japanese is turning to Apple because Sony's offering are "lame".
While Sony is trying to fight back with new MP3 Walkmans priced close to the Apple models, (29,000 yen for a 6GB unit) and they've cut the pricing of Mora online songs by 15%, this is not enough effort, due to that the iPod is sexier, smaller, and cheaper, and since Mora only has a catalog of 200,000 tunes, users are flocking to the iTunes site instead. Even Sony's own recording artists are complaining about Sony withholding its catalog from Apple Japan, and people like Motoharu Sano are signing up directly with Apple.
This will make a strong impact for Christmas time for Sony.
Posted by gizmoFan at November 28, 2005 2:26 PM