Hrunga Zmuda

Apple had nothing to do with it. They had considered buying Omnifone, but decided against it. Then when Omnifone went under, theh bought some IP and hired employees. This narrative about the big evil company crushing competition is just hooey made up to give a simple answer to a complex situation. Ommifone was no threat to Apple. There were bigger players.

Let's ignore the fact that Neil is wrong about Apple. They in fact bought the technology and hired staff after the demise of Omnifone, they in no way "shut it down" because they never bought it. That out of the way, I've been a big supporter of Pono. And have been very patient. (And I'm still waiting for a few upgrades in resolution for albums I bought.) But of course this was a risky effort. So I'm pretty much done with Pono itself. And I don't think I'll go with their streaming service if they ever get it off the ground. On top of that, it's not likely that MQA is ever going to be a part of the ecosystem, and now that it is becoming a thing that actually exists, and seems to be gathering steam, I'm about to jump to a media player that has a more logical shape, and will natively support MQA. It's been a fun ride, but the half-baked products so far from Pono were a great dream, and actually worked as advertised (ignoring the horrible interface that was ridiculously bad). it's been fun. Good luck and thanks for all the fish. Keep on rocking in America! (Until a certain cretin shuts it down.)

Yeah, well use of the word hipster pretty much tells me everything I need to know. As my original post pointed out, lots of people don't get something until others have already recognized its value and made it viable. Viable does not mean dominating market share. That's the idol on which many pundits and tech journalists base their worship. and yet market share means very little if your product is commoditized. It's a race to the bottom. By making products that stand out, and produce a good profit, one doesn't have to dominate a market to make a good living. I'm pretty sure most Pono buyers at this point are not expecting the world to beat a path to Neil Young's door. But we are hoping enough do to make it a go.

Compare the price of the Pono vs the AK120. That's a real good reason why Pono is exciting. Reviews seem to indicate Pono's better at less than half the price. We're excited because more people can participate.

I don't think you're interpreting history correctly. All the players up to that point were junk. Tiny storage space, and MP3 files. Whereas the iPod was a step up in every way. Easier to use. More capacity for the money. And a better quality file format - ACC. My point is that nobody knows what's going to happen. And anyone who thinks they know is just blowing smoke. The reason high resolution has failed to do better up to this point is pretty simple. No good ecosystem that makes it accessible to mere mortals. Prices too high. And a music industry that thought DAT and other high definition file formats were a threat to their business model. (And it was. But so were cars to buggy whips.) People do what they do today because they don't have better options. In a month, they will. The resurgence of LPs as a viable format should make you pause about asserting your claim too strongly.

- "I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player?" - "All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off." - "Better bring that price down or you wont sell any of these babies" Comments from clue-impaired MacCentral readers after the October 2001 iPod introduction