Memory Stick Pro-Paganda

[robrecht]

Why aren't more Clie owners concerned about SONY's deception of it's loyal customers when C|Net broke the story last December regarding the lack of backward compatibility with Memory Stick Pro?

Not to mention the long-term misrepresentation that SONY foisted upon buyers of memory stick devices for the past couple of years. They've been promising faster 2 GB memory sticks without any mention of incompatibility issues.

Recall this very widely disseminated claim:

"As Memory Stick media capacities continue to increase in the next century, Memory Stick's original serial protocol will ensure compatibility among current products and media, and the products and media of the future."
-SONY, Oct 10-12, 2002

I really don't want to be a SONY basher--I've been such a loyal customer for so long--but it seems as if SONY has deceived their loyal customers.

[___]

Propaganda is a technique for hiding things. This is definately n ot propaganda.

[robrecht]

Originally posted by ___
Propaganda is a technique for hiding things. This is definately n ot propaganda.

SONY seems to have hidden the fact that their promised higher capacity Memory Sticks would not be compatible with the Memory Stick devices they were currently selling to their customers.

When C|Net broke this story, SONY denied it in several public forums, even claimed that the C|Net story would appear foolish when they made their announcement at CES. But now it's we who appear foolish for having believed SONY.

[Clie_Tek]

I also find it interesting that the new Pro's are built on Magic Gate technology which supports Sony's own ATRAC format. Could this be the begining of the end for MP3 support from Sony?

[zzarg]

Sony are having such a huge problem with the hardware vs the media sides of the business....

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/sony.html

The MP3 vs ATRAC format war will be decided based on which division brings in more revenue <g>

[wellsjs]

I'm not upset because I can't see that I'll be in the market for one. For data/files use, my main 128M MS is only half full with everything in the world I can think of to put on it, including a complete internal backup. I guess if 24 hours of non-stop music is critical to one's way of life then you might just have to have one of these "Pros!" :eek:

I'm happy with 30-35 songs on my other 128M MS.

[robrecht]

Why doesn't the deception of loyal customers offend more people? Have we become so cynical that we expect a corporate giant to market by misinformation?

[sebring]

Originally posted by robrecht
Why doesn't the deception of loyal customers offend more people? Have we become so cynical that we expect a corporate giant to market by misinformation?

I am very offended. Based on the product release timelines, it seems very clear that Sony knew when they released the NR series and probably the T series, that they were not designing them to support higher capacity MS. From their compatibility tables, apparently some older devices do have support for these new MSs built-in. This tactic is a perfect example of designed obsolecence. Perhaps a class action lawsuit would encourage them to write OS4 drivers to support the new MS. I also agree with the other poster, that they seem to clearly be trying to distance themselves from MP3 because of the conflict of interest they have with their music business.

On the other hand, the price of the new MS does make their lack of compatibility much less painful.

[UKClieBoy]

Just to point out: MagicGate in no way inhibits the use of MP3 files. I had a MG stick with my Clie from the start and used MP3 with no problems.

But I am offended that Sony could not produce a high-cap MS that was compatible with older equipment.

[ErnieB]

Before the whole MS capacity/compatability thing becomes an issue, my NR70 will be for sale on eBay and I'll have something newer to tote around.

Being on the bleeding edge of technology is frustrating and expensive.&nbsp; Ain't it great??

[wellsjs]

I guess another "need" for that much storage capacity in the Palm OS environment would be to carry the entire Gutenburg Project library around with you! Not that anyone would ever read it all, but it would sound impressive! :D