If you're in the market for a dedicated, easy-to-pocket audio player that can handle the occasional video then it's hard to beat Sony's new Walkman S-series of players.
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And while Apple got its start as a computer company, Jobs has slowly shifted the company into consumer electronics, with the iPod displacing Sony's Walkman as the world's favorite personal music machine.
Initially the system will allow file-sharing with Sony's PSP games console, Nokia's N-series mobile, Sony Ericsson's Walkman and Cybershot handsets and Microsoft's Windows Mobile smartphones.
The iPod defines a product category, as Sony's Walkman once did when music was delivered on cassette instead of over the internet.
When MP3 rolled around and Sony's walkman customers were clamoring for a solid-state MP3 player, Sony let its music business-unit run its show: instead of making a high-capacity MP3 walkman, Sony shipped its Music Clips, low-capacity devices that played brain-damaged DRM formats like Real and OpenAG.
Lastly, the company is highlighting it's newest Walkman-branded MP3 fitness headphones, the NZW-W270.
Mr. Sneeden mentioned the TV SideView app, an electronic programming guide with voice activation that's available from the Play Store and takes advantage of the Tablet Z's built-in IR blaster -- he also pointed out that Sony's Music Unlimited and Walkman Player apps will be fully integrated by summer.
Jobs surely hasn't forgotten that before the introduction of the iPhone, Sony seemed poised (briefly) to derail Apple's iPod when it slapped the Walkman brand on a line of music-friendly Sony Ericsson handsets that have sold well in Japan.
Since the decline of other Sony products like the Walkman, the Playstation division is now the padding for Sony's bottom line.
The Tokyo-based company hopes the renewed retail presence will reinvigorate enthusiasm for products, like its Vaio laptops and Walkman music players, both of which have been lapped by Apple's competing devices.
And what's more, after they announced their new line of Network Walkman devices late yesterday, we discovered they even had intentions of adding WMA support, which just about dislocated our jaws, they dropped so hard.
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It's not good enough to just pump out lusty hardware like the Walkman in order to drive generous profit streams.
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The inventor of the Walkman, for instance, has been eclipsed in portable music players by Apple Computer's iPod.
More than thirty years after triggering a music and lifestyle revolution, Sony has officially retired the Walkman in Japan (there is still a lone model for sale in the U.S.).
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