|
|
Sony's new walkman phone W800
Sony Ericsson mixes a phone with a music player and digital camera.
BY OUR TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT
Sony Ericsson has introduced its Walkman Phone W800. It is a cell phone combined with a Walkman music player that handles standard file types. That is important, as Sony has so far preferred to offer music players that use only its
own ATRAC file format. The W800 also has a camera and a slot for Sony’s memory stick.
The Sony Walkman Phone W800 will probably not be a threat for Apple and its market-leading iPod family of music players. However, Sony has always regretted that it never read the mp3 music player market properly. Ericsson has not been
doing great in the mobile phone market either. However, the
mixing of phone, walkman and music player in the W800 may do the trick - get Sony and Ericsson back into the market.
The prospects for the W800, based on the sales of other feature-rich handsets, are not considered tremendous.
Sony has abandoned its proprietary ATRAC file system in favor of a Walkman that plays MP3 and AAC music files. Its 512MB memory stick card can store more than a hundred songs compressed at 128 Kbps. That is just not enough for the average iPod user.
But Sony is counting on users to tote their half gig memory sticks around like CDs — a major divergence from iPod’s large memory philosophy. Still, this is only the first of a new breed of Walkman. Sony has suggested recently that the iPod suffers from offering too much music on one device.
“It’s hard to say how the Sony Ericsson W800 will do,” said Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff. “Generally, products that try to serve two masters aren’t very successful.”
“It’s hard to believe that a device can be a great music player and a great phone,” Bernoff noted. But, he says, there are always products that defy conventional thinking and break new ground.
Sony may be working against the grain with a system that will allow users to download and manage sound files from their phones. Most analysts believe the PC will continue to be the device of choice for that function.
One area where Sony may have an edge: battery. Although users will have to change out memory sticks, they may have to futz with batteries less often. According to the company, the W800 can operate 15 hours with the phone enabled or up to 30 hours playing back music only.
More power comes in handy for the phone’s other features, which include a 2 megapixel camera, an FM radio and
Bluetooth.
BY OUR TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT
|
