s to each successive product S-curve, moving to a new media each time with no backward compatibility.
             When faced with competition from new entrant mp3 players, Sony stuck with CD devices, introducing relatively minor innovations to accommodate the new format. As late as 2003 Sony was introducing portable CD players that could play CDs and compressed music using its proprietary technology 'Altracplus', which enabled compression of over 100 songs onto one CD. Sony went for Altracplus as it offered superior quality (high-fidelity) over mp3 and Windows Media Player formats, and it heavily promoted this feature through independent assessments , hoping to turn it into the standard for compressed music.
             Although, Sony offered backward compatibility, it failed to recognise the new consumer needs and trade-offs: large-scale portable storage of 1000's of songs, at the expense of modest sound quality. Sony's products offered lower storage, 100+ songs and high-fidelity.
             Sony is an owner of a major music label, consumer electronics and computer businesses. Its conglomerate structure has been a major source of internal conflict in the recent years . In August 2000, when the music division was fighting a lawsuit against Napster, Sony Electronics was in the association favouring Napster. In 2001, Recording Industry Association (to which Sony Music is a member) sued Launch.com, a digital music portal partly owned by Sony's new technology and business development (VC) unit.
             Until 2002, consumer electronics made most of Sony's profits, however, in 2003 Sony Music made $152 million profit on $4.8bn sales whereas Electronics made $62m losses on $40bn sales. This led to a belief that music content was the future, which started influencing consumer electronics and led to clumsy devices that made copying music difficult. One analyst remarked "Sony Electronics can't afford to be held back too much by the...