On Wed, 10 May 2000 19:27:11 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Over here in Sunny England, MD is slowly but surely finding its feet.
S'funny, as a brit, I would have said that MD appeared to peak maybe around
six months ago.
> All
> the Virgin Megastores and HMV stores have MD aisles,
I would agree with that, though - there does seem to be more available in
HMV and Virgin stores for prerec MDs, but I guess some of that is possibly
because there are more titles now on MD?
> all the chains (Tandy,
> Dixon, Comet, Currys, PC-World, Richer Sounds, John Lewis, Index, Argos,
> etc) sell MD portables, MD systems and MD separates...
It does seem to be slowly tapering, though. Looking back in say Argos or
Index catalogues, there did seem to be more prominence, and MD models, than
there are in the current catalogues.
As far as the high street stores are concerned, I'd say there's not much
difference between now and six months ago - perhaps even more. I bought my
first MD recorder / portable, last September from a Comet store, and
although there maybe *slightly* more portables on the market now, MDs
positioning appears no higher than it did then.
> This would not have been the case a year ago, or even six months ago.
Sorry to argue! ;-) But IME there doesn't seem that much difference between
now and a year ago. The main difference I can see is that time has moved on,
MD appears no higher in prominences then than - which does make me wonder
how much time there's left in the medium, from a commercial standpoint.
By this I mean I wonder how long it will continue as, pretty much, a fringe
thing. And with MP3 players hitting the highstreet some time back, and to a
certain degree, with the internet bandwagon, perhaps have more prominence
(quality and features aside) I do wonder what will happen.
Not that it bothers me that much, I'm quite keen on the MD format and will
use it, as long as it makes sense to, and there is equipment and MDs being
sold. I just wonder how much longer there will be that much thrust of
development, in something that's reasonably a fringe format.
> Seems to me like MD is actually beginning to take off (here)!
I think it's already peaked, and a while back, here in England. That said
I'd be glad to be wrong ;-)
I don't think it's ever gonna hit mainstream. If it manages to maintain it's
current user base, and perhaps increase this, perhaps there's still a fine
future for it. I can just forsee a time when sales of the equipment are
fairly static, the highstreet losing interest.
> (But it could also be just a fad with slow momentum. Hard to tell,
> unfortunately)
I think MP3 equipment is currently the fad.
I remember first seeing adverts for MD equipment, a few years back, and was
always surprised it never really caught on. Popularity and fashion, though,
are rarely based on true merit.
I just wonder if MD has a significant enough user base to be likely to
remain as a popular / developing format. I think it's probably the
convenience and truly widespread use and acceptance that's made cassette
tape still a valid format. I mean people have speculated on it's demise many
times, and MD would look to be a potential replacement, but because of such
an established precedent, it's still likely to be around for some time.
I'd like to think MD would be, but then I'm not so blindly loyal, that I'd
ignore a new improved format. I guess it would be a shame for formats to be
fairly short-lived, fringe phenomenon, though.
I think that's the issue with technology and entertainment these days - with
it moving perhaps quicker than in the past, and although newer developments
still provide backward compatibility (ie DVD players that can still play
CDs, and perhaps newer generation MD equipment, that can play previous
generation media), I think the pace of change and moving goalposts, are not
something that the masses really want to buy into.
Neil
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