FWIW the iPod didn't really beat deep-pocket Sony's cassette Walkman or MiniDisc per se, it beat the uneven and dizzyingly wide field of onboard-storage digital audio players, from thumbdrive-looking sticks that only held a couple songs, to full-blown Creative and iRiver HDD players on which you could conceivably carry your entire collection, but whose device UX, song-copying computer-side UX, and resilience were bested by Apple. It also came at a time when portable CD players that could play a CD-R full of MP3s or WMAs were widely available, and were a popular incremental upgrade for those who were already used to burning their own CDs.
With suddenly dozens of ways to enjoy portable audio, Sony was hurt by the fall of the MiniDisc. Less so in the world of CD players, but in the the world of digital audio players, they were just another poorly-differentiated manufacturer. Songs were decoupled from their original hardcopy and became files one could manage on a computer, and the UX of moving these tracks onto portable playback devices was starting to matter.
Actors like Real, Microsoft, Apple, MusicMatch, and NullSoft were in this space, and their interests didn't necessarily align with the interests of audio player makers. Apple initially partnered with MusicMatch when the iPod launched to have a file management story on Windows, before they shipped iTunes.
With suddenly dozens of ways to enjoy portable audio, Sony was hurt by the fall of the MiniDisc. Less so in the world of CD players, but in the the world of digital audio players, they were just another poorly-differentiated manufacturer. Songs were decoupled from their original hardcopy and became files one could manage on a computer, and the UX of moving these tracks onto portable playback devices was starting to matter.
Actors like Real, Microsoft, Apple, MusicMatch, and NullSoft were in this space, and their interests didn't necessarily align with the interests of audio player makers. Apple initially partnered with MusicMatch when the iPod launched to have a file management story on Windows, before they shipped iTunes.