The Rolly, a dancing, rolling, glowing MP3 player, was yet another intriguing product in a long line of curiosities from Sony. Unfortunately, it wasn’t intriguing enough for consumers to actually spend $US400 on it. But someone at Sony is obviously still carrying a torch for the Rolly, because the company’s new rolling Bluetooth speaker seems eerily familiar to a product that already failed.
But the new Sony BSP60 might be more accurately compared to Amazon’s Echo, since the device is far more than just a wireless speaker on wheels. When paired with an Android smartphone it uses voice recognition for basic functions like setting alarms, forecasting the weather, and checking a user’s messages. It also functions as a speakerphone, which is pretty common for a Bluetooth speaker these days, and those tiny wheels underneath let it scoot around on a flat surface, presumably in sync with what music is playing.
So compared to the Rolly, Sony’s BSP60 is packing far more functionality, and useful functionality if the popularity of Amazon’s Echo is any indication. The only thing that hasn’t changed between the two devices is the $US400 price tag when it’s available in a few months, which might mean consumer’s interest in such a device won’t change either.
[Sony via Akihabara News]
