Sony will take Apple head on next year with the launch of new portable music players that pitch directly against the Mac maker"s iPod. So much the consumer electronics giant admitted at its Transformation 60 conference yesterday. But early reports that it will do so with a $60 device seem highly unlikely, unless Sony has managed to rewrite the rulebook of hard drive economics.
Most coverage of the Sony iPod story follow an initial report from news agency Reuters. It indirectly quotes "Sony executives" saying that the hardware company will "introduce versions of a rival music player to the iPod for as little as $60".
Crucial to what follows is the word "versions". Reuters rightly notes that $60 is "only one quarter or less than the $200-400 Apple charges for the various versions" of the iPod. The implication is that the Sony product will be an iPod at a quarter of the price. However, Sony hasn"t said that its $60 music player will feature a high capacity hard drive as the iPod does - or is as compact as the Apple machine.