No Rock And Roll Fun

A NEW DAWN: A whole bunch of Japanese companies have come together to create a new, common music format. Led by Sony, OpenMGX unfortunately has a name which will remind older tech kids of MSX, the common computer standard which was supposed to have beaten off Commodore and Sinclair back in the 80s but became little more than a playground taunt.

Sony seem to feel that they've got an edge over arch-rivals Apple because their format will work with Playstations, which might be true but misses the point that Playstations aren't entirely portable, and Sony's portable music devices haven't yet got the following the iPod has achieved (or, of course, that Sony's Walkman managed back when MSX computers were cluttering up the far end of Woolworths' shelves.) The new system might be in with a chance of stitching up the lucrative Japanese market - and we're sure none of the companies involved would be too upset if that was all they managed - but worldwide, it seems doomed.