The Walkman brand marches on

By Mary Lojkine on 07 March 2005, 4:28pm

Sony Ericsson's latest marketing ploy is the Walkman-branded mobile phone, aka the W800. It's a phone, it's an MP3 player (probably), it's a digital camera and it's orange. The colour might not suit everyone, but it works for us, not least because it harks back to the orange headphones that came with the Walkman II.

The WMII wasn't Sony's first Walkman (obviously). It wasn't our first personal stereo, either. That honour went to a chunkier device from a long-forgotten brand. Nevertheless, the WMII stands tall in portable audio history for taking the cool concept of the original Walkman and turning it into a cool product. It still looks pretty good today, despite the scuffs and scratches of five years in the pocket and nineteen in the attic.

Today it's a retro classic in a world where iPods have supplanted Walkmans and Sony is making a three-point turn in the ATRAC-only cul-de-sac. For all that Sony Ericsson claims to be leveraging Sony's music heritage, it seems more like an attempt to breathe new life into an aging brand. Losing out in portable audio? Hitch your hallmark to the ascendant star of mobile telecoms. -ML