By Greg Sandoval, 11 May 2006 08:40
NEWS
Sony is moving to make its music management software compatible with Apple's audio file format in the latest evidence of Steve Jobs' dominance in digital music.
The behemoth Japanese conglomerate, which once controlled the portable music market, announced on Tuesday that the company's data compression technology would be compatible with a number of rival formats, including Apple's format of choice: AAC.
In the past, Sony has fiercely held to its own Atrac system. By switching to a technology that supports AAC, the company appears to be acknowledging Apple's dominance in the digital music playing market, say analysts.
Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, said: "That's a big change for Sony. But it's not surprising. Competitors keep trying to stop Apple but the company's market share just continues to grow."
Calls to Sony were not returned on Wednesday.
Sony's new management system will allow iPod users to swap some of their music to a Sony Walkman but only songs they ripped from CDs.
Music downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store is prevented from playing on non-Apple devices by Apple's digital rights management technology.
Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com
Comments
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1. anonymous
It's shocking that you would report this so sloppily. And this time, you're not even just reprinting a press release - you're actually inventing news. A tech journal like yours should absolutely understand that AAC is part of the MPEG spec, and thus is an industry-wide standard, to which Apple is merely a subscriber, as are Panasonic, Sony, Microsoft, JVC, whatever. Sony already supports AAC widely in its mobile phones. Read arstechnica's article for the actual facts here - move along folks, no news here
2. anonymous
AAC is not Apple's format. It is simply the format Apple chooses to use. What this article should say is "Sony finally using a format people use in it's music players."
I remember a few years ago they didn't even support mp3!
3. anonymous
Apple simply chose the best and newest open format for their service. Perhaps if SONY did the same they would leading instead of chasing.
4. anonymous
And if their sofware worked...
... that might help. I've had long running e-mail battle with Sony over their flawed SonicStage software.
It won't run on XP unless you log in as administrator. They say "XP requires admin rights to save files to the hard disk". So, how do my kids, who have limited accounts, save thei homeowrk and pictures then?
I openly invite Silicon.com to follow this up with Sony; I have failed.
The nice Network Walkman went back and she bought something else (guess what iSuggested...)