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Walkmans are back on beat to rival the iPod
Jonathan Prynn12.05.09
The Walkman is set to make its latest comeback — 30 years after it revolutionised music on the move.
Tomorrow Sony unveils its most advanced version of the gadget — the X series — an MP3 player that can also play video and access websites.
Sony hopes it will compete with Apple's iPod Touch and allow the Japanese manufacturer to regain its once dominant position in the portable music player market.
The X series has a three-inch touchscreen made from a technology known as OLED, which uses far less power than current screens. Sony has also taken the amplifier technology from its home audio systems and shrunk them for the Walkman.
It is the most sophisticated version of a device that quickly became a design classic as the world's first practical portable music system after its launch in 1979.
The Walkman, originally meant for cassette tapes and later redesigned for CDs, was supposedly invented for the then chairman of Sony so he could listen to his opera collection on longhaul flights.
Tom Wiggins, news editor of Stuff magazine, said the Walkman name had an enduring quality virtually unmatched in the world of gadgetry.
Back to the future: the new X series MP3 which plays music and internet videos
He said: “It would be silly to get rid of it as it now represents so much about portable music, particularly for anyone growing up in the Eighties or Nineties. It is only people who got into music in the past five years for whom the iPod means portable music rather than the Walkman.”
Design expert Stephen Bayley said: “I remember flying to New York with a Tomorrow's World crew who had an advance copy of the Walkman and people simply could not believe the quality of the sound, their eyes were rolling in their heads. Aesthetically it was nothing particularly interesting but it was a masterpiece of what Japanese industry is good at.”
Wes Deering, spokesman for Sony, said: “This is really a new era for the Walkman, and it has been a while since we have had a product we are this proud of.
“We have worked very hard to make this the best quality portable audio and video player on the market. We've worked closely with our home cinema team for the audio, with our TV people for the screen, and we are very happy with what we've produced. While the iPod is a very good product, we believe that people who value quality will prefer the X series.”
Reader views (7)
Perhaps if it were a true 21st century walkman it would use 21st century cassettes i.e standard USB memory sticks, interchangeable and cheap.
- David, london
My heart skipped a beat when I saw the headline. Headphones on, the hiss of magnetic tape, the red LED for FM stereo radio, clipped satisyingly onto my belt...not a Walkman then. Crystal sets anyone?
- Brianonthecam, Cambridge UK
There are no iPod substitutes, no iPhone substitutes, because those devices do things other devices cannot.
By the way, the tease for this article is "First Review." This is not a review, more like a cut and pasted press release.
- Trunk, US
I have the last generation of sony walkman, the 8GB version (NWZ-A818), and IMO it is miles better than the ipod. It is not governed by software, sound quality is far superior to the ipod, and it also plays wav files up to 48KHz, which is good if you hate the over compressed sound of MP3s and the like. If you plug ipod in to home amp or a decent set of headphones it sounds awful. OK, 8GB is not massive, but with 32GB now comming out, storage should not be a problem. I'd never buy an ipod period.
- Dom, London
Kind of appropriate that the shot of the new device lists a track called "another wanna be"! Dream on Sony...
- Adam Apple, London
I also tried my first Walkman on a transatlantic flight. The guy next to me had this beautiful silver box and let me try. Ooh, it was wonderful, that first experience! But surely that was in the late sixties? Or am I dreaming?
- Chris, LOndon Uk
Unfortunately SONY has lost the plot. Their consumer products are all about appearance and gimmicks and they have one of the worst consumer service record around. I am not about to ditch my outstanding iTouch for a gadget that does the same thing only 2 years later.
Bye bye SONY!
- Aloicius, London
