 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.
Hard drive prices are falling, it's true, but
ultra-compact, high capacity models are still pretty expensive, and eat up
much of the cost of manufacturing a hard drive-based music
player.
 Sony is no stranger to the mobile digital music market. It has
offered Network Walkman products for some time, now. To date, these have
been solid-state products, with built in Flash memory expanded by the
addition of Memory Stick media. In that regard, the company already
competes with Apple's iPod.
While we can imaging Sony expanding its
Network Walkman to encompass a high-end hard drive-based product, and a
budget-priced solid-state model for $ 60, we very much doubt it can do so
with a single unit. Not unless it plans to offer the product for rather
less than it costs the company to make it, and we can't imagine it doing
that... | 
