Persuasion
Why Sony failed at the Persuasion Stage
There are a number of reasons why Sony failed at the Persuasion Stage and here are the reasons why listed below:
- Minidisc were very popular in Japan but made a limited impact elsewhere
- The Minidisc was created in 1992
- Minidisc was a replacement of the Phillips analog cassette audio tape systems
- Sony machines were not widely available in North America and companies such as Technics and Radio Shack tended to promote DCC instead
- The high initail high cost of equipment and blank media was also a factor
- Minidisc was unfavorable to the music industry
- Many magazines such as “Rolling Stone” felt the Minidics did not cater to the teenage demographic
- The major factor that CD and MP3s was a contribute to the downfall of the Minidisc among the teenage demographic
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The upgrade to the Minidisc MZ-RH1 allowed users to freely move uncompressed digital recordings back and forth from the Minidisc
to a computer without the copyright protection linitations previously imposed upon the NetMd , however pro users like broadcasters
and news reporters had already abandoned Minidisc in favor of solid state recorders.
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Cost was also a factor,the first Minidisc units carried retail prices around 750.00 blank media was 15.00 -17.00 for one disc.
Consumers were not willing to make that kind of investment.
- On July 7, 2011 Sony announced that it would not no longer ship Minidisc walkman and effectively killing the format.
Summary
Sony was determined to pursue the Minidisc and that most industry observers felt the Minidisc was a flop.
According to industry research, through the first five years of the Minidisc lifetime, only 500,000 Minidiscs
were sold. Retailers such as Radio Shack or Circuit City which seems to be placing some advertising support
behind the Minidisc, does not give it much space in its stores, grouping just one or two Minidisc players
in the portable section of audio.