Re:Why Japan Didn’t Create the iPod (2008)
by user5994461 on Monday July 26, 2021 @07:23AM
(#27958104)
>>> That means they wouldn't touch any of Sony's media formats or distribution platforms with a barge pole.
Sony made and pushed Blu Ray, which is the dominant media of the past decade.
The founders of the Blu-Ray Disc Association were: Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung Electronics and Sony.
The studios did try to push HD DVD but it failed in the market, they only went to Blu-Ray when they had no other choice. So yes that's a case where you could argue Sony 'won', but it was a lot more than just Sony and not at all comparable to the situation with say Mini-Disc which was a purely Sony technology.
Re:Why Japan Didn’t Create the iPod (2008)
by theandrewbailey on Monday July 26, 2021 @12:57PM
(#27961847)
Sony also helped develop Compact Disc and 3.5 inch floppy. Sony didn't develop Compact Casette, but forced Phillips to make it an open standard.
It's not like anyone used those things in the 80s and 90s. \s
My point was that Sony entering the film and music industries, which happened in 1991, soured their relationships with the other studios and labels. Compact tapes predate that by several decades and CD and 3.5” discs both do by 9 years. Clearly Sony had no problems getting their media formats adopted before that strategy shift. After that they had to fight tooth and nail.
The problem with this is the other media companies - movie studios and record companies - saw them as competition. That means they wouldn't touch any of Sony's media formats or distribution platforms with a barge pole. This massive strategic foot gun has crippled their medial initiatives for decades. The media companies are nice businesses, I shed no tears for Sony, but they could never do what Apple did and cut ground breaking deals with all the major labels and studios.