Head of Sony admits Apple took what could have been theirs

Sony has always been very secretive about their technologies. The reason is to save their proprietary formats from the competition. However, the latest news in is that their head of the Sony Computer Entertainment Ken Kutaragi has admitted to something which has been apparent since a long time. Apple has kicked Sony’s ass in the digital music player market.

Ken admitted that Sony missed an excellent opportunity to cash on the MP3 market, which could have eroded the popularity of the Apple’s iPod gadget. The popularity of iPod led to record sales (over 10 million iPods have been sold until now) of music from their digital music store iTunes. Apple’s player does import MP3 and they are also popular amongst consumers who buy and download music from their music store.

He said that Sony was more worried about music pirates when they technically forced the users to move to their proprietary sound format ATRAC. If they had started manufacturing players (dubbed walkman) supporting the hugely popular MP3 format, they might have gained an edge over Apple. Sony later realized the mistake and their newer products support both the formats.

Sony’s high-ranking officials rarely talk about company policies in public especially their personal opinion. This express of opinion by one of their senior representative shows how much Sony’s insiders think about the opportunity they have missed on with their Walkman music players.