Sony has announced a few new Walkman products for the Japanese market, all launching on February 11th. First up is the E060-series Walkman player, which comes in 2GB (E062) or 4GB (E063) varieties in four different colors. Pricing is open, but Bic Camera lists them for 8,980 and 10,800 yen (about $115 and $140) respectively. Adding around 2,000 yen to the price gets you a cute little color-matched speaker dock for the player to sit on top of. There's not a lot new with the player itself, save a noise-cancelling function designed to work with the designated Sony headphones, including the pack-ins. The design is also thinner and lighter than previous E-series models, while keeping the same 1.4-inch display.
Next, we have a couple of new Walkman speaker docks. The catchily-named RDP-NWG400B is a 2.1 Bluetooth speaker with a charging dock for Walkman players, and the RDP-NWM7 is a smaller affair with a carrying handle aimed at younger users. The products are another classic example of Sony keeping it in the proprietary family, but hey — if you've bought one of these Walkman players in recent years, it's probably nice to know they're there.
There are 21 Comments. Add yours.
Meh, you might as well get the S series then, they’re just as thing but have 8-16GB and really don’t cose much more than the E series. I would love to buy the A series but they’re not as thin, although they’re much better to watch movies on. If they made an A model as thin as as S model I would buy it.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:27 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As much as I love the idea of having something other than an iPod for music, this just seems to ‘blah’ to mean anything to me. I would like to expect more from Sony, but with all the specs and capabilities of today’s smartphones, there’s just way too many better options out there to consider something like this. Hell, even today’s featurephones could probably stand up to this thing if you can expand their storage with microSD cards.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:28 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I have an S series and it’s lovely. Yeah it’s not a phone, but it’s super thin, the software is really nice and easy to use, the UI is lovely and simple (you get your playlist / pictures / music / movie / settings / FM-radio, that’s it). It lasts longer than a phone, it’s thinner (can’t beat 8mm with a phone), it’s much much lighter. I like it much more than my phone.
(never used an iPod so I don’t know how it compares)
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:32 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Got to give credit to sony for sticking it through the thick and thin with the walkmen line up. Though is there really competition with the ipod nowadays?
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:44 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They need to pay someone to make a good sports armband for them, otherwise I see the Walkman line dying for good soon.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 8:53 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If the Walkman has any chance to survive, its in Japan. Japanese consumers love to buy local products. If a Sony Smartphone can outsell the iPhone in Japan, then Walkman can sell too. Now if only they actually looked good and had good software….
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
They have no software almost, what they have is a nice simple UI.
Your home screen is around 9 options (8-10 depending on the model, SenseMe, FM-radio, pictures / music / movies / Bluetooth / album / settings), when you upload something to your device it goes inside one of the designated folders, the walkman creates an alphabetical list out of those and the new items will have a “new” tag so you can find them easily in the list. All files are also sorted by "type of music (SenseMe does this) and by artist if available) That’s all these devices need really, there’s nothing I can think of that would make the software any better. It’s simple and it works really well.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:02 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ok, nm you were talking about the phones. Sorry.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:06 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The iPod dominated the Walkman in Japan, too. It’s probably the most obvious counterpoint to the “Japanese consumers only like local products” thing.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:09 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Read again. He posted evidence that the iphone is being beat by a japanese product. And added the possibility, that (this new) walkman can outsell the ipod.
You didnt really counter anything there…
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:27 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You should read again. He posted a link to a two year old article discussing a single carrier’s phone sales. At the time, that carrier didn’t even carry iPhones, and the linked article speculates in the last line this Sony phone may have outsold iPhone 3GSs.
However, if you google “iphone4s Japan”, you get dozens of recent articles about how the iPhone4s is dominating sales now.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 5:07 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah, evidence from 2010. Go look at the more current data, iPhone 4S is dominating au and Softbank. And then there’s Samsung too.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 5:45 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That numbers are from 2010. The current numbers are showing iPhone 4S taking the lead on au and Softbank, and Samsung is up there too. http://bcnranking.jp/news/1201/120120_21868.html
Sony need to work harder.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 5:44 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
C’mon really? Nobody here thinks it looks quite close to the ipod nano with extra buttons? If Sony wants to succeed in the next few years they have to come up with great design by themselves. They haven’t impressed me since the cd walkman.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 5:02 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Oh, the good times when the important thing about a music player was how it sounded…
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 9:47 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Take it from an Apple fanboy, it doesn’t look like an iPod Nano.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Really? No similarities at all?
https://plus.google.com/100463237530290106508/posts/DcFct5CkjEk
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 12:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Apple invented the candy bar form factor and circular buttons.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 2:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Looks good, but pricey compared with Sansa Fuze – and without that products flexibility with a micro SD expansion slot. Also Sansa [like my Samsung Android phone] allows content to be dragged and dropped on and off in generic mp3 format along with aac, wma etc.. Will this Sony? or will it b like apple ipod/iphone [and Nokia 5800 etc ] and need specialist software to get content on, and impossible or very difficult to get it off??
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 8:27 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
sony walkman does both
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 8:52 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I like Sony’s Walkman mp3 players for their sound quality but I think they might be mismanaging that product line. With the Z-series coming soon there’s no reason the A should continue to exist (and arguably it probably never should have). They should make up their mind with the E and S series, do they want the low end of the market or a more formidable iPod nano competitor, from a business stand point in a declining market they have to choose one or the other.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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