Advertisment

Why P-III Is Better Than MP3

author-image
DQC Bureau
New Update

MP3 or Motion Picture Experts Group 1 Layer 3, is the audio format that revolutionized the world of digital music storage. Its power to compress the conventional WAV format audio file to one-tenth its size without losing much of the quality makes it one of the most popular audio format known so far.



MP3's only limitation was listening to it through software on a multimedia-based computer. It was to overcome this limitation that portable MP3 players were introduced - a digital version of the Walkman. It has no moving mechanisms and is supposed to be much more reliable. It is lighter too and never skips notes unlike the portable CD player. MP3 music tracks are copied directly inside a memory chip via the computer's parallel or USB ports.



MP3@india.com



MP3 players arrived a bit late in the Indian market due to this peripheral's high cost. Prices came down considerably and today, there are quite a few brands of MP3 players in the market. Models from Creative, Diamond, Samsung, Sony and D-Link are the ones usually found. However, despite prices coming down, retailers do not seem to be very happy. "The prices are still high for Indian buyers," says a Lamington Road retailer.



With a price tag ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 35,000, the going remains tough for all those selling MP3 players through the right channel. Already, popular retailer outlets are unhappy about MP3 player sales. "We sold the last few pieces of Samsung's JazPiper with great difficulty and now we are not planning to keep any more of this product, until people really come asking for it," says an executive at Here & Now.



Similar are the views expressed by people at Compunics: "It is a slow moving product. People are not ready for such a product at this point of time." Compunics stocks MP3 players from Creative and D-Link.



The Best, which sells the Pine brand of MP3 players, is also not very positive about its sales. Memphis Technology, a distributor for Rio MP3 players is discontinuing sales of this product after they finish with the existing stock.



D-Link, which introduced the 'Digital Home' concept, a few months ago, had clubbed the MP3 player as one of its components. But, till date it has failed to bring much business. Anand Mehta of D-Link agrees that business has been slack in the MP3 player segment, "There is no euphoria," though he says, "We are going slow with the promotion of this product. We will begin this in another two months' time. Right now it is just wait-and-watch."



A dark horse



In the midst of these high priced products, surprisingly, there are some retailers who are thrilled about selling a different kind of 'MP3 player'. Unlike conventional MP3 players, which merely store and play music on flash memory cards, these products are basically portable CD players, which can play CDs stored with MP3 files. Typically, one CD can store around 170 songs. Compare this with a conventional MP3 player, which can only play around 20 songs, unless of course more memory cards are added. Clearly, nothing can match CD players that can play MP3 files in terms of sheer cost effectiveness.



Not surprisingly, 'Pagaria', which can play MP3 CDs, seems to be selling like hot cakes, though it is hardly a well-known brand. The retailer, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims to sell at least four to five pieces of this model every day. Now, what makes this model click? Apparently, its low price tag of Rs 4,500. "We source these through the gray channel in Delhi. That is how we could sell it so low," he says.



Right from the beginning, retailers perceived a poor market for this product. The first portable MP3 player - Diamond Rio, followed by many brands like JazPiper, Pine, Mercury, Creative, Casio, etc, appeared in local markets. But these remained as merely showpieces on display windows of retailers. The pattern, which seems to emerge indicates that only low priced products that are tried and tested click. That is what 'wait-and-watch' really seems to be all about.



But what exactly is it that makes an MP3 player so costly? Well, the costly flash cards, of course. Most MP3 players available have a 32MB storage capacity with slots for additional 32 to 64 MB flash cards. According to Anand of D-Link, the 32MB memory card itself costs Rs 5,000 -- which means, an MP3 player that costs Rs 10,000 includes the cost of the 32MB onboard memory. In the near future, it is quite likely that memory card prices may head South. It is even more likely that more capacity will be available for the same price.



Generation next



To overcome this problem of limited storage, Creative came with the Jukebox which boasts of storing around 5000 songs in its 6GB in-built storage. Comparatively, the player is much bigger and heavier than the light pocket-sized MP3 players, based on memory cards.



Even then, the Jukebox is better to the existing Discman available in the market, thanks to its storage capacity. Possibly, Jukebox is the product of the future. It costs Rs 35,000 and is a lot cheaper compared to the six 32MB memory cards, which can play only around 60 songs at the same cost.



Most retailers feel once prices come down, there is hope for the MP3 player market. Since it is a new technology product, there is every chance of newer products being introduced periodically. In fact, even as markets aboard do the trying and testing, next generation products have already cropped up. Besides, MP3 players are being built onto watches, phones and FM radios. Iomega too has plans to launch its MP3 players based on the Clik technology, replacing the flash memory cards.



Various MP3 players such as MPMan, MPIO etc, can be used to store not only MP3 files but also any other type of data files such as doc, gif, txt, bmp and wav. Besides music, these products can also store various types information in different formats. For instance, priced at Rs. 11,000, D-Links' MP3 player is the only one in India, which has got a dictaphone support, allowing users to record live.



Downloading controversy



The idea of finding music on the Internet and downloading it onto a PC and finally to the MP3 player itself has always is quite controversial, thanks to the copyright factor and

Napster.



When CDs made an entry, it was feared that the cassette tape would die. However, various factors like cost, kept the cassette industry in business. It is likely that history might repeat itself. But as of now, channels seem to be keeping their fingers crossed and listening to the music.



Nelson Johny



In Mumbai

Advertisment