MNC's or Multi national corporations often take bets on the future. There is really no way of predicting which device or gizmo would make it big in the future, so they keep on investing in R&D. Sometimes like in the case of the walkman, the product becomes such a big hit that the companies fortunes are changed forever. Apple had the same thing done with the iPod. But once the iPod was out, every other manufacturer was rushing to make MP3 players. Wee, almost everyone except Sony. They decided that since convenience and capacity was the name of the game, they would go in for ATRAC players. ATRAC is a format developed by Sony which allows users to push in a lot more music without compromising on quality in the same amount of space.

Unfortunately, it never picked up. MP3 players meanwhile kept getting bigger and bigger. So we no have Sony playing coverup by adding MP3 and WMA support. The firmware upgrade for existing Sony players like the NW-A1000, NW-A1200, and NW-A3000 Network Walkmen gives them ability to play these formats. Trouble with ATRAC was, no one really used it and its much too easier to find and swap songs in MP3 format.