Walter Knapp wrote:
> ... Folks are once again starting to
> notice sound quality and ask for it. Sony noticed this change, and
> clearly late in the development process of HiMD added in the
> uncompressed (and apparently dropped SP mode, probably for economic
> reasons, each mode adds cost).
Interesting thing about added cost for mass market devices ...
the NRE (Non Recoverable Engineering) cost, when amortized over
enough sales, disappears. But there are a couple of limitations
that really affect what appears in a product. One is software
storage size -- the flash part can only hold so many features,
and at some point the engineering effort to "compress" the code
size runs into diminishing returns. And going to the next
bigger size memory part imposes a major per-unit cost.
The other limitation is on the product as a whole, and that is
the market window. The more weeks you drag out the release of
a product, the more of your potential customers opt for a
competitor's (or your own) shipping model. That's missed
opportunity that a particular model never recovers.
I'd be more inclined to attribute the feature set of a particular
product to the engineers hitting the market window and fitting
it all into the chosen memory part, than to the marketing folks
having a shrewd and agile perception of what the customers
really want. Now for speciality markers (film sound pros come
to mind), you can often afford to take the time to get it right
and damn the market window and per-unit costs.
> So, I don't watch sony, I watch HHb.
Just so.
-- Mike
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