oh Sony, the operative word here again is 'proprietary'. You gave us miniDisk, MemoryStick, Betamax etc. etc. And we gave a shit. Sorry about that, but proprietary is out, simply. Get used to it.

yogibimbi

it's opening up for 3hrd brand addons, and it will be easyer to find stuff on the internet.

rrwakc

They committed suicide with their Walkmans requiring lame Sony software to upload music.... They don't get it: If you are not the market leader, then you have to be more flexible and customer driven... Not less!

altus

why not? I like it.

rrwakc

Lame....why don't they just give up and make more "Designed for iPod,iPhone" accessories. I'm sure they can make more money on accessories than their Dead MP3 line..

xoticlad

Something something dead horse something something...

Hvedhrungr

still waiting for memory slots....and no, not sony memory.
i could care less about any wmport compatible junk. and yes i do own a walkman. all the wmport accessories i've seen are overpriced junk.

Justifan

trying to compete with ipods?

urbanturban666

I hope this means that it will work with the SE phones as well. I'd like that, since I love SE phones.

A friend at SE told me that appearantly the term "Walkman phone" was very popular and in many countries used to describe a phone that could play music regardless of the brand. It would seem that the Walkman brand was very strong in many countries, especially Europe and Asia.

The best would just be if everyone would get along and there would be a standard for this that all PMP and Phones would support. ;)

mno.net

f*** you sony and one more of your uneccessary standards... f*** U

KoRnholio8

@altus: Sonic stage got dumped, but not gone, more like exiled

@urbanturban666: Some competition is healthy. We'll see better ipods in the future. It's a free market, face it.

@xoticlad: Walk man is not dead. Music quality: superior. no thrash white ear buds included.

snowy_coke

Sony needs to act like it has some competition.

strider_mt2k

I appreciate that SONY is taking care of its customers...it might not win them new ones but it'll keep me in the fold.

Kspraydad

About 25 years too late.

Serolf Divad

I don't even like Apple doing this crap since they take a cut for charging the seller to have that stupid "Made for..." sticker on there (see here: [www.newsweek.com] )

The last thing I want to see is Sony sucking in more money. By the way, stop naming your TVs such confusing crap (not a Sony specific complaint but...really...come on)

Late_Night

Nice job Sony, sounds strikingly similar to Made For Sansa.

slaughter33

Sorry Sony. You already destroyed your billion dollar brand. No Mulligans.

OMG! Ponies!

I'll keep my Zune, thanks.

ViperBorg

@snowy_coke: its kinda bullshit really, to sell marked up proprietary cables and adapters... and now you gotta run software made by sony to use that thing. when has sony made any good software besides playstation games?...

urbanturban666

I've got a question:

Have any of the people here bashing the NEW Walkmans even tried one?

The players are no longer chained to Sonic Stage and the quality of the players, especially the sound quality, is superb. I should know. I have the S6xx Walkman model. Hell, even the headphones on some models are worth keeping.

Can we end the ignorance? Yes, Sony has had a bad image with Sonic Stage. But they really have made significant strides in improving the Walkman line.

Ion_Predator

@Late_Night: Yeah, I agree that the naming scheme Sony chose was completely retarded. And yes, because of it perhaps, the Walkmans might not appeal as well to the market. But come om yourself: if four characters deter you from buying an otherwise truly great player, then you just gotta get over yourself. Just call it a Walkman and move on. Last time I checked, a player's name doesn't affect how well it performs.

@Techguy1138:

Ion_Predator

@Ion_Predator: BUT, have you owned any of their branded Walkman phones?... I believe this is what Kit is speaking about specifically. Their Walkman phones are kind of a big deal in Europe and Asia. I have owned several, and well that proprietary media port and their insistence that we use expensive Memory Stick Micro shit just has to go! Sony Ericsson's market share has taken a serious hit lately, I'd start looking there (with all of that proprietary crap) first for cues as to their drop in profitability and overall market share loss! Why can't SE (mostly Sony to a large extent!) just go with the flow and industry standards like: micro SDHC, mini/micro USB, and 3.5 stereo headphone jacks? Maybe if they did this, then they wouldn't have taken such a huge financial lose across the board in profits this year... It'd also make them a more sustainable company in the long run, but lets not bring the environment into this...

Whatever the case, this is directed at Sony: NO CONSUMER IN THE CONSUMER SPACE LIKES PROPRIETARY CRAP! STOP IT! BAD SONY!

Ambiguous Blob 2.0

@Ion_Predator:

No, they haven't. I even had sonic stage and it wasn't that bad.

The problem is that they were once the leader and released a steaming pile of crap. They will never be forgiven for that even from people who never used them.

I really like my Walkmans. They still have the only water resistant mp3 player I've seen.

Techguy1138

@Ion_Predator: S6xx??? What is with these retarded names? This is really where Apple owns. No obscure numbers and random letters, just a name, plain and simple. I don't think the iPod could be what it is if it were named S6xx, buying becomes a practice in remember the order to these retarded codes.

Btw, no I haven't tried one. I hope it works well and sounds great for you, but the name...come on', that's inexcusable. (Before anyone gets on me about Apple names, I do concede that MobileMe is quite awful, dotMac sounded way better)

Late_Night

@Ion_Predator: Dude, well depends on what it is that we're talking about, doesn't it. Again, and just for clarification, are we talking about tech that works with Sony's stand alone "Walkmans" -OR- tech that works with "SE Walkman Phones"?... If it's the latter, then I think it's very relevant and symptomatic of their current state, look at some of the previous post for reference dood.

Ambiguous Blob 2.0

@Techguy1138: I really don't see the point you're trying to make. If you're trying to say that because Sony made crappy players in the past, that these players will inevitably suck, then I'm at a loss for words. Aside from the fact that they don't, can't we just let bygones be bygones? Why linger over the past? I mean, it sure will affect sales. But that doesn't change the quality of the players.

@Ambiguous Blob 2.0: Dude. That's a WHOLE different topic. I mean, really?

Ion_Predator

I used to love Sonic Stage and my digital walkman when it was connected to SonyConnect store...but alas Connect is now dead and I have since moved over to Zune and the Zune marketplace. partly because I really dont care much for iTunes and partly because even though the sound quality on my Zune perils in comparrison to my old Sony NW-HD5 it is still much better than the iPod line. I almost wish I had waited for the newer Sony line because the sound quality is simply superb and sounds especially great hooked up to a car stereo.

my main gripe is not having a good music download service that offers DRM free downloads away from a softeare package. Amazon is ok but to have a proprietary service is so much easier when moving music on and off the player and downloading quick onesy songs and syncing directly.

so for know, I stay with a Zune. Let me know when Apple starts updateing firmware as often as they do their hardware for the iPod line.

Lavallee017

Do I see another shitty proprietary format on the horizon? <.<

N-Bomb

@Ambiguous Blob 2.0: "That little logo there is Sony's attempt to inject a little bit of adrenaline into the Walkman lineup of PMPs..."

I think the above quote makes it clear that we're just talking about Sony's Walkman portable media players. Not the SE Walkman phones.

Ion_Predator

@Ion_Predator: I saw that and you are correct in your understanding of it.

Does anyone know if Sony plans on supporting SE Walkman phones with this initiative? Just curious is all... Aren't SE Walkman Phones considered PMP players, albeit with phone functionality built in, like say a iPhone is to a iPod touch or classic? Or, is this just marketing cockipop, or essentially just a marketing gimmick on SE's part? Does that mean that the "Walkman" branding that some SE phones carry is just that in name alone, what with the name being licensed from Sony proper, meaning that it doesn't constitute support from the rest of the brand in regards to peripherals? Is there a difference from "Walkman' in relation to "Walkman phone"? Sony makes that distinction? Well, whatever the case I see a lot of consumer confusion arising from this. Oh noooos!

Ambiguous Blob 2.0

Sony also thought it was a good idea to make the PS3 approx. $800 per-unit to produce at launch.

videoCWK