"Wow. I didn't expect this to turn into such a tirade. But here it is. I
congratulate you if you've read this far. Sorry 'bout that. :-}"
So what would you give as the explanation that the MD is so popular in Japan??
The people are more educated about it? I don't think that Sony spent more time
and money educating the Japanese (a much smaller market) then they did the
Americans.
As far as price goes, yes portable players should be much less (and there
should be a huge selection of prerecorded MDs to go along with the players).
But you really can't compare portable cassette recorders, because they are not
a readily available product. Go to the store and all you see are players.
As for the cost of an MD vs tape, I don't think that you would pay less for a
top of the line cassette tape then the $1.50 or so that MDs can be bought for
if you look around. But that's on the net. The price in the stores would also
have to be $1.50.
I think that the simple fact is, for the most part, Sony has given up on the US
market. They throw us a few units (along with Sharp) but they consider the US
market strictly to have a "cult" following. They have moved on to these huge
displays for the Stick.
Sony and the other manufactures must love things like the stick. No moving
parts. If something is going to go wrong with a unit that was not a lemon to
begin with, moving parts would be my first guess. Also, they can make stick
players for next ot nothing.
The problem is the Stick itself. I think that the cost of memory is relatively
expensive compared to a cassette, CD or even MD. Static RAM like the kind used
in the stick is even more expensive. Just how low can they drop the price of a
stick??
Can they drop it to $1.00 for 650 MB? I don't think so. But I admit I'm
clueless as to the actual cost of memory for the OEM.
I don't think that we are ever going to see growth in the MD market place in
the US.
Regards,
Larry
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