Fever pitch for mobile entertainment market
By Nick Easen for CNN
Tuesday, September 7, 2004 Posted: 5:32 AM EDT (0932 GMT)
LONDON, England (CNN) -- It has been 25 years since Sony launched the original Walkman, now the portable entertainment scene is going through a energetic renaissance, but this time it is digital.
Seeded by the success of Apple's iPod and online store iTunes, joggers, cyclists and drivers the world-over now consume entire CD collections and downloaded tunes on pocket-held devices.
But Apple is about to find the market more crowded. Microsoft and others are moving in. Their entry is set to herald a new phase in the battle for personal entertainment.
"We are seeing new players in the market innovate with new features such as video. But the market is still very young, people still carry CD and cassette players," Ian Fogg, personal technology analyst at Jupiter Research told CNN.
In direct competition to iTunes, Microsoft is about to offer songs on its Web site for 99 cents. RealNetworks already has a promotional 49 cents per-song download campaign.
Other competitors include Wal-Mart Music Downloads, Sony Connect, Musicmatch Jukebox, Napster 2.0.
On the hardware side, Singapore-based Creative Technology is doubling the number of digital music players from eight to 16 by the end of the year.
"This year, MP3 (digital audio players) will be the hottest segment -- last year was digital cameras," Creative Chief Executive Sim Wong Hoo told reporters.
Reviewers are hailing its new "Zen" player as one of the strongest rivals to-date for Apple's market-leader, iPod.
One thing that differentiates Zen is its ability to offer more than just music in easy to use formats. It has the ability store up to 85 hours of video and thousands of photos.
"Portable Media Centres are vanguard devices that will change the way we think about digital entertainment on the go," says Todd Warren, a corporate vice-president at Microsoft.
"Today we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg in how content companies are envisioning a future where people can take all of their digital entertainment wherever they go -- on vacation, while they commute, at the gym."
The company that invented the portable music player, Sony, has released a digital version called the Network Walkman complemented by its online music store Connect. Hewlett Packard has also launched a digital music player.
But dethroning the iPod is likely to be an uphill struggle. Microsoft has come late to the music game -- one in which Apple has significant market share. Many consumers already associate the Apple brand with portable digital music.
The simplicity of Apple's online store and its music player could also create a barrier for competitors.
"The goal is to make it easy to use, Apple has this, but it may not be the dominant player in the future," says Fogg.
Analysts say that the boom in the personal entertainment scene may also be marked by consumer bewilderment at the multitude of models and digital-entertainment formats.
By giving people an increasing range of choices for audio and visual content that is portable and competitively priced could change the face of personal and pocket-sized entertainment -- but do not throw out your first generation iPod yet.
"I expect in 10 years you will still have a music player that is just good for music. I do not think you will have a single device for all forms of entertainment including video -- it is an experience issue," explains Fogg.
