To: "DCC-L discussion list" Subject: Followup on "DCC is dead" article Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 15:03:08 +0100 Here's the translation of a follow-up article that appeared today in "Eindhovens Dagblad" following the front-page article last Thursday about the demise of DCC. It contains some interesting figures... Again, all copyrights are acknowledged, text between square brackets was added by me. Tape-lovers don't need digital sound PHILIPS DIDN'T FIND A MARKET FOR DCC (By Gijs Moes) The perfect marriage between the two most succesful audio-carriers ever, that's how the digital compact cassette (dcc) was announced in 1991 by Philips. The ease and durability of the compact cassette and the superior sound quality of the compact disc would be united in the new medium. But selling figures were disappointing. This week it was announced that Philips has stopped production of DCC for the consumer. In 1963, Philips invented the compact cassette. In order to increase the success, it was decided that the technology was to be released to the general public and that worked: many manufacturers started making tapes and recorders, that were sold well. The consumer accepted the poor sound quality. In the eighties, Philips introduced the compact disc. The superior quality pressed the lp out of the market. On top of that, cd's are less vulnerable than lp's. The cassette however wasn't replaced in the least. For many consumers, it remained a cheap and easy medium, ideal for taking music everywhere, be it pre-recorded or not. The walkman only increased the attraction of the cassette. With dcc, Philips thought it would bring the ideal successor of the cassette to the market: digital sound, easy to go, shock-resistant and on top of that: you could still play the old cassettes. After the introduction was postponed a few times, the new medium was introduced four years ago. At first, Philips expected they would sell 750,000 recorders the first whole year after introduction: 1993. The counter wouldn't go any further than 150,000 [That's no surprise: most DCC lovers agree the first generation DCC recorders lacked some significant features like text programming - JG]. This by the way was about the same number of CD players that were sold the first year of their introduction, Philips emphasized. After that, no more figures were disclosed. Competitor. ----------- Around the same time as DCC, a serious competitor was introduced: Sony's MiniDisc (md). Not a cassette, but a disc, comparable to cd. There are many similarities in usage: with both systems, music can be recorded and played back digitally. The sound quality was scorned by Philips [not only by Philips - JG] at the beginning, but the difference with dcc is minimal. MiniDisc hasn't become a success in The Netherlands. A spokesman of "Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers NVPI" [Dutch association of producers and importers of picture and sound carriers - JG] calls the selling figures of prerecorded dcc and md in The Netherlands "marginal". In 1995, about 41000 prerecorded dcc's were sold. For md, the figures are very negative: -4000. That means that customers returned 4000 discs more than they bought. This may be caused by the fact that "Free Record Shop" [the largest chain of record stores in the country, even though the records aren't really free :-) - JG] decided not to sell md anymore. MiniDisc may not be doing very well in the West, it's doing fine in the home market. In Japan the discs are a big success, especially in the portable form. A spokesman of Sony sees "an upgoing line" in The Netherlands. The disappearing of dcc offers them big chances. "We have to fill that hole quickly". The explanation for the dissappointing success of dcc could be in an analysis that was once made by Philips themselves. The world - according to this hypothesis - is divided in tape lovers and disc (lp, cd) lovers. The tape lovers are more attached to ease of use, while disc lovers are more interested in sound quality. Tape lovers who are willing to pay more for better sound are rare outside Japan apparently. Philips in any case hasn't been able to reach them. [That last paragraph makes no sense to me. The history of the analog cassette shown here clarifies that TAPE lovers were satisified with less quality in exchange for robustness compactness and ease of use, while DISC lovers were willing to pay more for the excellent quality (and more complicated mechanics and electronics) of CD's. But DCC is CHEAPER than MD and also BETTER, so this is no question of "wanting to pay more for better quality". I think the reason of the demise of DCC is that there has almost been no marketing for DCC while Sony has been aggressively marketing MD as "the new digital medium" for some time and sponsoring all kinds of events. Also, Philips has made some big blunders like Video 2000 (reversible video cassette system, superior quality to VHS and Betamax, introduced too late and only in Europe), CD-i (a system that inherently obsoleted itself because all CD-i discs are supposed to be playable on all players; also full-motion video was introduced too late) and other products. They're building up a reputation of "guaranteed failures" as far as consumer electronics is concerned. - JG] ============================================================================ Jac Goudsmit Software Engineer jacg@xs4all.nl Visit the DCC-FAQ at http://www.xs4all.nl/~jacg/dcc-faq.html ============================================================================