Sony on Apple's Footsteps!

Call it fixation on Apple products, I do not mind. But, Apple has emerged a clear winner in the competition for the product of tomorrow. Yes, I am talking about MP3 player.
Not long before, Sony was very popular for its invention of the walkman. In fact, Sony was called one of the companies that produced products with very novel features. But Sony could not keep up with times and now it stands in a peculiar position.The reason could be many. But some of the striking reasons are the business decisions of Sony. It has a culture of supporting their custom technology, while the rest of the world followed a seperate trend. For example, some of the Sony MP3 players support music in ATRAC formats only. To make it compatible with MP3, an additional sum has to be spent. All this makes it difficult for the consumer to percieve.
While all these has been happening, Apple has emerged a clear winner with its iPod range of products. The advantage is that the iPod has brought in more brand recognition for Apple that even its iBooks sales are increasing. The high end iPods are very convenient to use. I would rather call it a feature packed product with the best ease of use.
Recently, I found that Sony has redesigned one of its MP3 players to look like iPods. Looks are almost similar to iPOds. The only difference seem to be the control.
It shows that Sony is desperately trying to catch up with the trends and as a result following the footsteps of Apple!