At 8/7/00 11:58 AM, las increased the world's knowledge by typing:
>So what would you give as the explanation that the MD is so popular in
>Japan??
I'm no expert on Japan, so this is only an educated guess. That said,
it's my understanding that Japan is a much more technology oriented
society than the US. They're more willing to try something new and cool
than the US is. It also seems that they are big fans of miniaturization,
something MiniDisc excels at over older technologies.
They also have a significantly larger choice of models, lower media cost,
and other related infrastructure such as the ability to have a selection
of songs placed on a MD at a kiosk.
>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 the prices of the discs themselves aren't too far out of line
anymore. They're still about 50% more than a decent audio tape, which
isn't _too_ bad. But there's still some room for improvement.
>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.
In other words, "Profit Margin." They must be raking it in right now. I
wonder how long it will be before the consumers realize how expensive and
limited those pieces of junk are and there's a major backlash.
>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.
The cost for RAM is outrageous on comparison to magnetic and MO medio.
The current low price for computer RAM is in the $.75/MB range and hasn't
gone any lower than that for a year. The price I last paid for MDs was
about $.023/MB (assuming that MDs hold about 140 MB.) But I paid about
$.001/MB for CDRs the last time I bought them. There is no way that RAM
is going to get anywhere close to those costs any time in the next 10
years, if then. And in the mean time, I expect MO media costs to continue
to drop.
>I don't think that we are ever going to see growth in the MD market place in
>the US.
I've seen it in my area, but only as a result of other people seeing me
use my equipment. I think that's the only way it will grow.
BTW... I'm staying away from the prerecorded discs question. In my
personal usage, I prefer to buy a CD then copy to a MD for portable use
while the original CD stays safely (and conveniently) in my office. But
you're right about people not buying players only without a selection of
prerecorded discs to choose from.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed "What the" Heckman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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| It is the man who goes straight to his goal, obstacle or no |
| obstacle, that commands our respect, gets our confidence, and |
| gets to the front. He is the man who is sought in an emergency, |
| not the man who is afraid of obstacles, who magnifies |
| difficulties. |
| -- Orison Swett Marden |
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