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Originally Posted by Matt D
The PS1 & PS2 are technicially inferior to other consoles of their generation, yet wiped the floor with them. Must've been some good marketing there.
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I don't deny that Sony have marketed SOME things sucessfully. I could argue that they have had other failures. MicroDV (like mini dv, but smaller) & SACD for instance.
I think that where Sony have done well with a product, it's often because they are first to market. Look at the Walkman (which is a Sony trademark, as much as iPod is an Apple one) - one of the most sucessful consumer products ever.
I think the PS1 succeeded partly because it was the first 32 bit console to market (IIRC it was released several weeks before the Saturn) and partly because Sony has a massive library of products (games, films, tunes etc) it can licence.
The PS2 had those advantages, and it also had the Playstation brand. Where Sony have a "brand name" (such as "Walkman", "Trinitron" or "Playstation") they have been very effective in marketing that.
Unfortunately, they don't have a powerful brand name in the MP3 player market (even calling their players "walkman" doesn't seem to have helped), and they certainly weren't first. They have had digital music players on the market for a long time, but MP3 had already been established as a standard when they entered the market, and their players didn't directly support it.
That said, I would like the new Sony player to sell well. TBH, the last couple of Sony MP3 players I have tried have been (IMO) superior to the iPod, and when my iPod dies, I might get one of them.