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Walkman by Sony Ericsson: new brand and model series extension

The company of Sony Ericsson has been recently placing particular emphasis on the new brand Walkman, the new brand, promotion and it was made through pressure of Sony. The products planned as ordinary devices with musical constituent of various levels were turned into ‘special versions’. It was partially covered in an article about Sony Ericsson W800i release (/articles/2005/walkmanback-en.shtml). By now there are several Walkman devices officially presented. They are the available Sony Ericsson W800i the series leader, Sony Ericsson W550/W600 a youth phone, Sony Ericsson W900i a model of the third generation, very similar to К750/W800. As for form-factors, they are a usual monoblock and a rotate structure that is supposed to be opposed to sliders. The series extension presupposed the release of a devise of the clamshell form-factor and the company did schedule it (originally it did not belong to the Walkman series like any others). The project code name is Mulan and the expected date of the release is the end of the second quarter of 2006. The leaked information of the product is unexampled, for the too detailed pictures, though ill-conditioned, were found in the Internet. Unfortunately, no sources has managed to list particular characteristics of Sony Ericsson W650i (the name is preliminary and can be altered). Here is the gap bridged.

Internal TFT screen of resolution 176x220 points, 262K colors
External STN screen of 65K colors
MS Duo slot (the model lacks M2; it is the first application in a top product in the second six months)
Stereo loudspeakers and stereowidening
FM-radio, RDS, alarm signal
Full HTML browser
1.3 megapixel camera (TBD)
Control board
Bluetooth

These are the performance that helps you imagine what Mulan virtually is. The EDGE support traditionally lacks. The model is now elaborating and the embedment of a camera similar to that of Sony Ericsson K750i/W800i seems likely to happen and quite logical. There is no special zest in the phone since it is a banal model series extension by means of a new form-factor. The suggested retail price will vary between 280 and 300 euros in June. The balanced price and growing popularity of Sony Ericsson W850i (the name can be altered) will make demand for the product. Still the clamshell form-factor has its adherents.

Source: http://bjs911.2.mydiscuz.net/viewthread.php?tid=2108&extra=page%3D1

The model of Sony Ericsson W650i (Mulan) is of little interest; it is well-balanced and the proposed function set have much in common with that of W550i. It cannot be called a potential hit and hence the model will just enlarge the series and even the Walkman logo placed on the body would not help.

This device rather supplements supply in low-end segment, for instance Z100 coming in the first quarter which belongs to extremely cheap clamshells. The model’s software is very well-known, the price is unlikely to influence demand of the company’s adherents. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson failed in decision of low-end phones release. During the whole first quarter only low-end devices coming into market (none of the three has already been announced), it will be a quite strange situation.

Meanwhile the sales of Sony Ericsson K750i/W800i is the highest and the company does not manage to put out models of amount requirement. The deficit in the current models varies from 30 to 90 per cent in various countries, in particular Russia’s demand is 10% met. As it was expected, the demand for Walkman W800i of bright colors is not high as many customers prefer to purchase Sony Ericsson K750i or to update W800i with some manipulation. The technique is developed and described on lots of web-sources and as a result required profiles appear and the music playback by the player gets of a rather better quality. By our estimation, almost 10% of all K750i’s sold in the current quarter undergo this modification and it is a too noticeable phenomenon to loose sight of it. The release of two almost identical models eventually causes one dominating over the other. On the contrary, there are evident profits for Sony Ericsson in PR and marketing, for the company promotes several products and produces an illusion of hit products upon a customer.

Another illusion consists in the release of W900i posing a device similar to smartphones in functionality which possesses the best screen of Sony Ericsson at present. The big size and the lack of fundamental improvement in comparison with W800i do not permit regarding the model as a one of great interest; it is of little use and not very handy. So this is a phone exclusively for those who want functionality and need the UMTS support as well.

The current Walkman series leader based on W800i is ready. The model of Sony Ericsson W850i lack the UMTS support (hence lower index), but has a number of advantages over W800i. That the design is at most similar to that of business phones and the refusal of white and orange in colors is the main advantage. One might say W850i is coming to take both W800 and К750’s place. This is the leader of the whole 2006 and its successor will be shown only in the end of 2006. The changes in the device’s software are of interest and though they are rather pleasing details, they provide a new model image. Firstly, the model’s interface will be partially remade; this is connected with the new screen possibilities (hardware alternation). Secondly, the company is placing higher emphasis on business functions, the Sony Ericsson W900i with standard icons in message answer (message read, answered, redirect) initiating the process. The device’s coming into the market will be accompanied with that of a new software version to synchronize a PC, the software now being tested. There is a backward compatibility. According to Sony Ericsson’s design, the software will raise the organizer and phonebook usability. In particular repeated event input such as birthdays and additional fields will be easier carried out as well as the following synchronization. At present the package is crude and runs quite unstable.

Sony Ericsson W850i’s software does not fit the senior models due to the hardware difference.

One can rightly declare Sony Ericsson W850i remaining a bestseller and multi-awardee during the whole 2006. As for the price-quality relationship, this is one of the best models. Sony Ericsson K750/W800 customers’ switch to the new model is not quite justified since the improvement amount is little. Those who want to purchase W800 in spite of the design they dislike should expect till March when Sony Ericsson W850i is coming into the market. The release of W800’s new version will aggrieve many W800 customers, for W800 is on sale since October and will have a successor as early as in March. Unfortunately the information of A2DP profile realizing in Sony Ericsson W850i is neither rebutted, nor verified. A stereo Bluetooth headset (to be presented in February) by Sony Ericsson is among the supported accessories.

The company of Sony Ericsson has scheduled for 2006 the release of 5 more phones of Walkman series. The model of Sony Ericsson W600 will be the senior among them, though the 300 index is rumored to be involved in the end of the year. It means that the model will cost about 200 dollars when released. The model conception is extremely easy — minimum of embedded memory and memory card to be purchased separately. The development of Walkman products is rather spontaneous and the uniform strategy is not worked out and hence there is an ambivalence, an output of similar products and a quick modernization of models.

Referred article:

Walkman by Sony Ericsson - a new strategy and launching a promo campaign

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published - 31 October 2005

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