Sony NW-ZX2 (picture: Sony)
After I look over my RSS feeds and information releases for the primary week of 2015, one product class has caught my consideration. The return of the MP3 participant. Strictly talking it needs to be Media Participant, however I’d argue that ’MP3 Participant’ is a generic time period. Naming apart, within the rise of lossless file codecs and a push in the direction of audio high quality, these media gamers are a world away from the USB sticks and spinning onerous drives from the flip of the century.
Sony has made headlines at this 12 months’s CES with the announcement of the snappily titled ZX2 Walkman – a stable state music participant with 128 GB of storage, a variety of audio codecs, and a $1199.99 price ticket. Neil Younger’s high-definition music participant, the Pono, has went on sale this month at a retail worth of $399 and 64 GB of storage, following a profitable Kickstarter funding challenge.
On the flip-side, final 12 months noticed the cancellation of the iPod Basic, and maybe the final alternative to replace the iPod Contact was handed over. The iPod Basic was discontinued to because of lack of elements and a dwindling viewers for Apple’s moveable jukebox, and the iPod Contact appears to bumble alongside and not using a care on the earth, slowly changing into the loopy Uncle in Tim Prepare dinner’s portfolio.
So are we in a courageous new world of media gamers, or has Apple timed it accurately to bail out?
Surprisingly, each solutions are appropriate, however I’ll begin by wanting again on the pocket digital camera.
There got here a degree when the imaging functionality in smartphones reached a ‘ok’ degree such that the informal consumer might make the change from paper to digital, and rely fully on the telephone of their pocket to seize household recollections. There are far fewer pocket cameras of the point-and-click selection, in any case nearly all of them are digital. The SLR cameras, the prosumer cameras, and the skilled cameras are nonetheless obtainable, and nonetheless worthwhile, however the low- and mid-range standalone cameras are actually a dying breed.
And right here is the place the audio gamers have to consider carefully about market situations.
MP3 as a file format is a lossy format, however at this time limit the MP3 file is ubiquitous, platform agnostic, and ‘ok’ for most individuals’s use. Each telephone out there’s a music participant (and a digital camera, and a GPS Sat Nav, and very quickly a pockets) and the marketplace for your low-end standalone music participant has been just about gouged by the smartphone.
There are some specialist areas the place you may take into account a standalone participant. Their small dimension makes them good for gymnasium and health work, whereas the road-warrior in me prefers a standalone music participant when happening very lengthy journeys simply to protect the battery lifetime of my smartphones. However these circumstances have gotten rarer and extra particular day by day as smartphone producers adapt to shopper’s wants.
The final protect of the standalone media participant is high-end audio. Very similar to the digital camera world, there’s a small however extremely demanding viewers that want excess of ‘ok’ from a cell media participant. They should get as near perfection as attainable. There will not be a lot of them, however they’re prepared to pay substantial quantities for the expertise. That is the place Sony, Pono, and different media participant producers, needs to be seeking to goal.
By constructing round a enterprise mannequin of brief manufacturing runs, high-end gear, and high-quality thresholds on specs and elements used, this market will be served with out shedding cash. Are you able to construct a significant multinational firm round this or rely in the marketplace for progress? No, however you may have a worthwhile enterprise.
I doubt that Sony is seeking to the ZX2 to usher in any vital income. What it ought to usher in is belief, model loyalty, and the impression that Sony is within the shopper electronics sport to do greater than shift containers.
Pono goes for the boutique route. I might hope that there’s revenue margin on the music participant, and with its Kickstarter backing, the staff could have a good thought what number of models will promote in a far. It’s unlikely to be measured on this tens of millions (and even the a whole bunch of 1000’s) however a boutique firm with low overheads and a small headcount ought to have the ability to flip a revenue on this area with good advertising and marketing and promoting.
Pono additionally has the potential for ongoing income from its music retailer – high-end audio units do want high-end audio information to play on them, it defeats the aim if all you might be doing is upscaling MP3 audio!
To all intents, the moveable MP3 participant is lifeless, buried alongside the Kodak Instamatic, the Palm Pilot, and pocket pager. Its affect lives on, however as a mainstream machine, the MP3 participant is an ex-MP3 participant. There’s nonetheless an area for the high-end audio machine, nevertheless it’s going to be a distinct segment challenge from a manufacture or a smaller unbiased firm that steps as much as rule this area. Proper now, there are alternatives to construct model consciousness and status, and maybe a small revenue.
Observe me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Take a look at my web site.
