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In early 2000, Hoddie created Generic Media, a streaming media company that included Sony among its investors. In 2002, that was succeeded by another multimedia software company, Kinoma, founded with two former Apple colleagues.
Kinoma's announced products today are a digital media player, a photo album, and a media manager aimed at people who use media on portable devices, particularly Palm-based handhelds and Sony's Portable PlayStation. Kinoma consults for outside companies and has worked with Sony on smaller projects.
But its crown jewel is a code base called FSK, a new system for handling multimedia files as they're transferred online, to PCs and between handheld devices.
Hoddie's history at Apple made him appealing to Sony executives who felt Steve Jobs stole a digital music crown that was rightfully theirs. By early 2005, he could demonstrate prototype digital music software dubbed KTunes, which was based on FSK. It seemed to provide a way to jump-start Sony's own digital music effort.
But the project, said one high-level Sony insider, was an "unmitigated disaster."
FSK was not a mature technology, according to critics, and lacked most of the documentation sought by Sony programmers working with the system. It wasn't designed to integrate with Sony's existing Web or commerce systems, and wasn't based on the HTML or XML standards used by traditional Internet applications, so it required significant work to build almost any feature.
Sony insiders say Kinoma's core technology was designed to function on a portable device and on the PC. A prototype FSK-based version of the Sony Walkman was created, but the company decided early on to avoid this route and stick to Kinoma on the PC.
In late spring, questions from the U.S. programmers resulted in memos from top executives in Tokyo reaffirming Hoddie's role as chief architect of the Connect project. That certainly didn't help what some insiders later described as a communications breakdown.
By early summer, the Connect programmers were saying they had no way of meeting plans to release the software with a new generation of Walkman devices in late summer. They blamed the platform. Hoddie blamed them.
The issue finally came to a head when the co-presidents in charge of the Connect project, New York's Wiser and Tokyo-based Koichiro Tsujino, flew to San Jose, Calif., for a meeting with the programmers, briefly attended by Hoddie. The executives were presented with data and complaints about the project, and told again, unequivocally, that the schedule could not be met.
The meeting provided a dose of reality. Features began to be cut. Relations between the core Sony programmers and Kinoma declined so far that a team in Japan was asked to serve as a buffer between the two camps, relaying communications from San Jose to Palo Alto, and back.
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digital music
Apple's foray into video is limited because they are not owners of the content. They are limited to brokering deals. Sony owns content and could start distributing it however they please and foster consumer demand. This applies to VoD, rental, and broadcast with consumer acceptable digital rights. Others would fall in line.
Add to this transfer capabilities to PSP, possible TiVo software on the PS3, and you have a real competitive offering.
I'm trying to figure out how you could have come up with such a comment when everything else goes against it. Apple doesn't own the music on iTunes, so why isn't their foray limited? Sony owns a record label, yet their foray in music limited.
Apple's foray in video is limited because they make it so. They are testing the waters. Has nothing to do with not owning the content.
Apple's foray into video is limited because they are not owners of the content. They are limited to brokering deals. Sony owns content and could start distributing it however they please and foster consumer demand. This applies to VoD, rental, and broadcast with consumer acceptable digital rights. Others would fall in line.
Add to this transfer capabilities to PSP, possible TiVo software on the PS3, and you have a real competitive offering.
I'm trying to figure out how you could have come up with such a comment when everything else goes against it. Apple doesn't own the music on iTunes, so why isn't their foray limited? Sony owns a record label, yet their foray in music limited.
Apple's foray in video is limited because they make it so. They are testing the waters. Has nothing to do with not owning the content.
Imagine, music fans LOVE their artists and also LOVE the publisher. Now that is science fiction if I ever heard it. Hey, maybe Pixar could make a movie. Have to be animation though cause no one living would dare appear in it for fear of ...
Rant off.
Imagine, music fans LOVE their artists and also LOVE the publisher. Now that is science fiction if I ever heard it. Hey, maybe Pixar could make a movie. Have to be animation though cause no one living would dare appear in it for fear of ...
Rant off.
Kinoma's stuff was proprietary was Sony's complaint? Or a
complaint projected by the author of this article?
Sony doesn't seem to be a strong fan of open standards like
XML. Nearly every device it makes uses some proprietary
technology. Atrac, AVC, UMD discs, minidiscs.
Of course not all worked out fine, that's the risk you have if you dare to be a trendsetter rather as a follower, but in some cases this was fair, in other cases not. People like to make fun about ATRAC, but as a Sony Walkman owner I can use both ATRAC as MP3 on my PC using the sony soft and I can ensure you the quality of the ATRAC songs is superiour to MP3. It's not because MP3 has become popular since you can copy freely without wondering about legal aspects that the quality is good. I hear nobody complaining about Apple's non-proprietary format called i-Tunes, which is far more restrictive than Sony's one for instance.
UMD is to be used for PSP only, I don't hear anybody complain they have to use cartridges in their nintendo's so what's the point ? Would a full sized DVD have been a better approach ... nah, guess not...
What XML has to do in your list is a bit strange to me by the way...
Kinoma's stuff was proprietary was Sony's complaint? Or a
complaint projected by the author of this article?
Sony doesn't seem to be a strong fan of open standards like
XML. Nearly every device it makes uses some proprietary
technology. Atrac, AVC, UMD discs, minidiscs.
Of course not all worked out fine, that's the risk you have if you dare to be a trendsetter rather as a follower, but in some cases this was fair, in other cases not. People like to make fun about ATRAC, but as a Sony Walkman owner I can use both ATRAC as MP3 on my PC using the sony soft and I can ensure you the quality of the ATRAC songs is superiour to MP3. It's not because MP3 has become popular since you can copy freely without wondering about legal aspects that the quality is good. I hear nobody complaining about Apple's non-proprietary format called i-Tunes, which is far more restrictive than Sony's one for instance.
UMD is to be used for PSP only, I don't hear anybody complain they have to use cartridges in their nintendo's so what's the point ? Would a full sized DVD have been a better approach ... nah, guess not...
What XML has to do in your list is a bit strange to me by the way...
Obviously the "how are we going to make an iTunes for books" problem is (as this article helpfully describes) the real crux of the issue. And also obviously Sony can't seem to find the answer to that question.
The funny thing is that I (and I suspect a huge portion of the potential ebook market) couldn't care less when/if they get their iTunesForBooks equivalent done. I want to buy the reader right now simply to display my own reference content on. I have basically no interest in buying a DRM "a la carte" copy of a Grisham novel, etc. anyway.
So the irony is that potential customers like me can't buy the hardware because the store isn't ready yet.
Hopefully Apple will come into this and just take the whole market overnight. They really should. If Apple licensed the eInk screen, made a reader and then added a books section to Itunes, they'd own the game instantly. I find it strange that they haven't wanted to get into this.
Obviously the "how are we going to make an iTunes for books" problem is (as this article helpfully describes) the real crux of the issue. And also obviously Sony can't seem to find the answer to that question.
The funny thing is that I (and I suspect a huge portion of the potential ebook market) couldn't care less when/if they get their iTunesForBooks equivalent done. I want to buy the reader right now simply to display my own reference content on. I have basically no interest in buying a DRM "a la carte" copy of a Grisham novel, etc. anyway.
So the irony is that potential customers like me can't buy the hardware because the store isn't ready yet.
Hopefully Apple will come into this and just take the whole market overnight. They really should. If Apple licensed the eInk screen, made a reader and then added a books section to Itunes, they'd own the game instantly. I find it strange that they haven't wanted to get into this.
FAIL SONY FAIL!
1. Get out of the content business. Focus on what they were good at in the past: hardware (and they'll need to develop the talent to create great software to run that hardware).
2. Forget about locking in their customers. Sell the best solution and they won't have to force consumers to continue to use their products. It should be company policy that anyone using the word "proprietary" as a positive feature of a Sony product should be counseled the first time, then fired for the second offense.
mark d.
FAIL SONY FAIL!
1. Get out of the content business. Focus on what they were good at in the past: hardware (and they'll need to develop the talent to create great software to run that hardware).
2. Forget about locking in their customers. Sell the best solution and they won't have to force consumers to continue to use their products. It should be company policy that anyone using the word "proprietary" as a positive feature of a Sony product should be counseled the first time, then fired for the second offense.
mark d.
headmaster...
Ditch VAIO's and walkmans, maker their TV's, DVD's run Mac OS
X... Let them be designed by Jonathan Ive and his team...
work across groups. At Apple that seems to be easy and that's
why their products are pretty much well connected. If they
merge, it really wouldn't help Apple which is quite nimble lately.
Apart from that Steve Jobs may have done some good things lately with Apple, but older people amongst us migth still remember the terible shape of the company when he left it during his previous live as CEO of Apple...
headmaster...
Ditch VAIO's and walkmans, maker their TV's, DVD's run Mac OS
X... Let them be designed by Jonathan Ive and his team...
work across groups. At Apple that seems to be easy and that's
why their products are pretty much well connected. If they
merge, it really wouldn't help Apple which is quite nimble lately.
Apart from that Steve Jobs may have done some good things lately with Apple, but older people amongst us migth still remember the terible shape of the company when he left it during his previous live as CEO of Apple...
But I do not applaud iTunes and iPod. I believe that the DRM battle between Sony, Microsoft, Apple and a few others to set up a proprietary standard is wrong for the market. Open standards should be the norm, or at least stick with actual standards (MP3, MPEG).
Sony wants to stick with FSK? Then no wonder if they go again into the wall.
It is time to revise a misconception: the classical sales model for content is past. The success of Apple is not from iTunes but the fact that you can play MP3 tunes on your iPod.
iTunes is marketing. The big money comes from hardware at Apple - ask Samsung which has lost the compression chip manufacturing contract.
Sony has to innovate by:
> selling its music business
> champion open standards
> design and manufacture good hardware
In a word: PSX, Mobile phones (SonyEricsson), MP3 players and possibly laptops.
As a related story, I suggest to read my post about Quaero to be published on the www.360journal.com which examines a related issue - searching multimedia contents in a DRM world.
But I do not applaud iTunes and iPod. I believe that the DRM battle between Sony, Microsoft, Apple and a few others to set up a proprietary standard is wrong for the market. Open standards should be the norm, or at least stick with actual standards (MP3, MPEG).
Sony wants to stick with FSK? Then no wonder if they go again into the wall.
It is time to revise a misconception: the classical sales model for content is past. The success of Apple is not from iTunes but the fact that you can play MP3 tunes on your iPod.
iTunes is marketing. The big money comes from hardware at Apple - ask Samsung which has lost the compression chip manufacturing contract.
Sony has to innovate by:
> selling its music business
> champion open standards
> design and manufacture good hardware
In a word: PSX, Mobile phones (SonyEricsson), MP3 players and possibly laptops.
As a related story, I suggest to read my post about Quaero to be published on the www.360journal.com which examines a related issue - searching multimedia contents in a DRM world.
I'd say that Peter Hoddie is still working for Apple!
I'd say that Peter Hoddie is still working for Apple!
All MP3 manufacturers are dying to kill Apple's domination of the market. But, they keep releasing product after product without any proper planning. Sure Apple spends a fortune on marketing. But, they only have a limited number of products "iPod, iPod Shuffle (which it seems to be on they way out, and iPod Nano. That's it. These products evolve and are phased out or replaced with better products as the technology progresses. That's it. No, "20 or 25 different products released annually."
Simple. Produce a limited amount of items, support and develop them. Connect could have a chance as long as they orchestrate their strategy smartly.
But, if Sony continues this failing strategy, they don't stand a chance.
- Too Many Products.
-
by Dead Soulman
May 31, 2006 5:30 PM PDT
- The problem/challenge with Sony is that the products they offer to the U.S. market is different from the one they have in Japan. This "dual-production" method will, and it has, kill any company's chance to compete and stay on top. Sony is dying from this crazy, and unexplicable production practice.
-
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See all 118 Comments >>All MP3 manufacturers are dying to kill Apple's domination of the market. But, they keep releasing product after product without any proper planning. Sure Apple spends a fortune on marketing. But, they only have a limited number of products "iPod, iPod Shuffle (which it seems to be on they way out, and iPod Nano. That's it. These products evolve and are phased out or replaced with better products as the technology progresses. That's it. No, "20 or 25 different products released annually."
Simple. Produce a limited amount of items, support and develop them. Connect could have a chance as long as they orchestrate their strategy smartly.
But, if Sony continues this failing strategy, they don't stand a chance.