We all know how Apple rejuvenated itself with the iPod. From a declining, niche player in personal computers the company took off after launching the iPod. Taking advantage of commercially available MP3 technology, Apple stepped in after Napster was sued into oblivian to help customers accomplish their goals of building individual music libraries.
Why didn’t Sony take this tack? Sony not only had all the hardware (after all, they were leaders in radios, personal CD players and the marketplace for personal entertainment), but they actually owned a recording company — they had the content. Sony could have been first to build on the market Napster pioneered to reap the results.
But Sony chose to Lock-in on CDs. It missed the MP3 wave. And it still is. After leading the industry wave to wipe out Napster, Sony is now leading the industry to block piracy with copy protection software. Instead of folowing its customers and developing the marketplace, Sony keeps trying to blame its customes for its woes. Sony keeps fighting the last war, and in the process it is alienating its customers and its most important suppliers – the recording artists.
When markets shift, those who succeed move quickly to the new competitive ground. You can moan and groan and try to use lawyers in an effort to protect and old business, but that never works. Customers will find the suppliers who figure out how to give them what they want. Sony needs to wake up and align with its customers, instead of trying to find ways to protect its out-of-date (and failing) Success Formula.
