Sony are to roll out three new series for its flash memory Network Walkman range.
The three lines (the entry NW-E100 series, mid-range NW-E400 series and the high-end NW-E500 series) are available in capacities of 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB and will be launched in April 2005. Their batteries remain charged for up to 70 hours and they possess innovative 3-minute recharge for 3 hours of play.
The bundled SonicStage 3.0 music management software converts and manages music from CDs, handles MP3 files, and provides "seamless access to the CONNECT Online Music Store’s catalogue of more than 500,000 tracks and albums."
Cool or what? We’re off to pester Sony press department to see if 
they’ll give us one to try out. Maybe they can let us know if it’s ‘Walkmans’ or ‘Walkmen. Maybe we could get a few to raffle off the blog. Now, there’s an idea….
Related PSFK Articles
Sony Ericsson’s Walkman Phones
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Way cool. Those are downright sexy.
March 9th, 2005 at 11:28 am
I want one!!
March 9th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
From New York Times:
The predigital Walkman evolved over the years into more than an astounding 1,120 models. But its essential nature remained unchanged: it was dumb hardware. When Apple Computer introduced the iPod in November 2001, Steve Jobs described his new player as “the 21st-century Walkman.” With 98 years remaining in the century, that was an early call. But he was correct. The iPod in 2001 was a Walkman successor, but smarter, its hard drive easily navigated with well-designed software.
In April 2003, however, when the iTunes Music Store opened, the iPod became something else again: part of an ingeniously conceived blend of hardware, software and content that made buying and playing music ridiculously easy. Apple accomplished this feat by relying on its own expertise in the twin fields of hardware and software, but without going into the music business itself.
Much earlier than this, Sony had gone Hollywood. Flush with profits generated in no small measure by the Walkman, and taking advantage of the strong Japanese yen, Sony acquired CBS Records for $2 billion in 1988 and Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion the next year. Neither transaction could be said to have been the outcome of thoughtful internal discussions about strategy. The possibility of marrying hardware and entertainment was a consideration, but a fuzzy one.
However dubious the original rationale, the music and movie acquisitions have turned into Sony’s brightest, most profitable spot at the moment. It’s the portfolio effect you would expect in a classic conglomerate: parts of the business that are doing well cover for those that are not. Of course, the theory assumes that a given unit’s difficulties are merely cyclical. But Sir Howard’s consumer electronics business, whose DNA only supports premium pricing and lacks the software gene, may not bounce back, ever.
Last week, Sony announced a bunch of new Walkmans positioned against the ultralight iPod Shuffle. They reflect the same insular hardware culture that learned the wrong lessons from the earlier success of the Walkman. The game today, however, is not necessarily about spec sheets and weight in grams.
At Sony, having both digital players and music in the same corporate family has actually been detrimental to its hardware interests. The music label directed the hardware group to make copying impossible, to the extent that until recently, customers could not enjoy on their Walkmans the music from their own legally bought CD’s that they had encoded in MP3 format.
Sony Connect, the late-arriving, woefully designed answer to the iTunes Music Store, still lamely insists on using Sony’s proprietary compression standard. Apple got away with holding to its own standard only because it got everything else right, and was early to boot. Sony Connect must lag somewhere around 300 million song sales behind Apple, but pretends otherwise.
Arguably, Walkman product managers are even more blind to market reality than those at Connect. Today, they are selling the 20-gigabyte Network Walkman for $50 more than the comparable iPod, even though it cannot use any music sold on Apple’s site or on those of the many competitors that use Microsoft’s widely licensed compression standard.
How the iPod Ran Circles Around the Walkman
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/worldbusiness/13digi.html?ex=1268456400&en=3da69bc08858ad56&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt
March 13th, 2005 at 1:49 am
So, maybe I am demonstrating an incredible knack for stating the obvious. It seems that Sony is either trying to copy what they see as a successful business model in iPod/iTunes while trying to ride the overestimated value of the Sony brand.
Or, they are trying to up the sales of both products by making them simbiotic.
Probably both, I guess. I think the Times article is right on but would suggest the lame adherence to proprietary features is not an affect of being behind the curve. It is a mad push for market share. They aren’t blind to market reality they are trying to change it.
I don’t see this as having much chance of success, especially since Apple is set so firmly in place.
They did a good job on making it look swank but stumbled on price point. I have also not seen a marketing push to compete with the iPod campaign that must be on the verge of desentizing consumers. This may be a good example of what happens when numbers people are put in charge of everything.
I, of course, still want one. :)
March 14th, 2005 at 12:47 pm
I just added this this on Ian’s PSP post but I think it’s important here too:
Well Ian – looks like you’re in-’touch’. Here’s a clippet from an article in todays NY Times:
An object of desire from Sony
Some traveled to Japan, where the gadgets were released in December. Others paid resellers as much as twice the $250 retail price to get one early, before they arrive in stores in North America in fewer than two weeks, and Europe shortly after this.
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The object of desire is the PlayStation Portable, a Sony hand-held video gaming device aimed at redefining entertainment on the go, and not just for young gamers.
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For Sony, which has faltered in recent years in some electronics categories ionce dominated, it is a big bet. The company often refers to the PlayStation Portable, the descendant of the PlayStation, born 10 years ago, as the first integrated portable entertainment system.
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Besides playing a new class of interactive three-dimensional games on its screen, the PlayStation Portable can play full-length movies, music videos, home movies and digital snapshots with startling clarity. With the tap of a couple of well-placed buttons, the device is a high-fidelity digital music player complete with ear buds.
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“It is just the sexiest device I’ve seen since the iPod,” said Sean Spector, a vice president and founder of GameFly, an online video-game rental service, referring to its “beautiful industrial design.” He added, “What the iPod did for music, this could do for electronic games.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/13/business/psp14.html
March 14th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
Some interesting commentaryon Sony here:
http://hnewlands.typepad.com/cardboard_spaceship/2005/03/would_you_like_.html
If you want to see a real closed device, then look at the Sony “MP3” players. These lame brained things wanted to load your MP3s on the computer, and then convert them into ATRAC (?) format. Why? So that you wouldn’t pirate music or something, because they have a music division. Arrgh. Betamax, Mini-Disc, and then ATRAC. Somebody in Sony needs to get the idea that a technically superior standard does not a market make. In surprise and shock at having single-handedly lost the personal music player market that they owned, they recently decided to move to the open standards camp, but guys, weak move and too late. And this has commercial consequences, look at what Samsung has done to them.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:15 am
Heavy stuff Guy. It reminds me that I have a very nice Sony discman that came with ATRAC software. The CD has never been out of it’s sleeve. Lots of compression but the game was obvious from the start. The Cardboard Spaceship piece really nailed a lot of issues. I solve many of those problems by maintaining a stand-alone system that only gets selected apps but that can’t solve things forever. I am sure that is what certain industries are banking on.
Nice catch on the article. Hopefully a lot more people will read it.
March 16th, 2005 at 5:03 pm