News

Sony Bean Loses to the iPod

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 9:50 AM - by Staff

Sony's latest assault on the iPod, the Walkman Bean, will be discontinued in April. The bean shaped MP3 player entered the market in August of 2005, giving it about a six month life span. Unlike Apple's iPod, it includes an FM radio receiver. Also unlike the iPod, it didn't sell.

The 512MB Bean is priced at US$109.95 on Sony's Web site, and the 1GB model is $139.95. In comparison, Apple's only 512MB iPod is the shuffle, priced at $69. The 1GB iPod nano, which includes a color screen and can display photos, costs $149.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 278 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:37 am

What an amazing story! The legendary giant, the inventor of portable music phenomenon, discontinues its fashionable portable audio device after just six months, under pressure from the dominant player! When put in perspective, this really gives people pause. That company like Sony, with brand name cache, R&D assets and strong motivation to come back fails so drammatically is just hard to explain. If anyone remembers six months ago, this 'Bean' player was to be an iPod killer (much like a myriad of other devices from the likes of Creative, Dell, Samsung...). Apple is on the right track to milk this market as long as there is a drop of it left in it. This is good for the Mac!

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kevdo said:

member since 09 Dec 2004 with 54 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:55 am

The bean was a stupid design. Good riddance.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1011 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:26 pm

It was refried.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:28 pm

At this point, it seems that any product dubbed as an "iPod killer" is immediately doomed to utter failure and humiliation. I wouldn't be stupid enough to run a company competing against the iPod, but if I were, I wouldn't be doubly stupid and call my product an iPod-killer. It's a death knell for the product.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:41 pm

Introducing the Walkman Beanâ„¢. This latest iPod-killer is unsinkable, just like the Titanic...

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:37 pm

An FM tuner isn't what I want as a feature of an MP3 player. If I want to listen to FM radio I'll just turn on my radio. The idea of a player is to listen to what you want and not what the radio plays. So I'm not surprised this product failed like the rest of them. All they keep adding is this dumb FM tuner that nobody wants or needs.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:15 pm

I have lost my confidence in Sony. Their recent products that I have purchased seem to be poorly designed with little in the way of user engineering.

I bought my mother a Sony alarm clock, radio and CD player. The time and alarm set-up is nonsensical, uses weird buttons and steps. There is no button labeled on-off, no obvious way of turning it on and selecting radio or CD. Now it has some nice features if you could outwit them, there are presets for different alarm times and different alarms, either buzzer, radio, or CD. I have trouble with it and I a bit of geek, mom is totally frustrated and unplugged it.

I was given a set of Sony earbuds as a gift. It has a cable that is too short when wearing an iPod on the waist, might be okay for upper arm mounting. It comes with a cable extension that makes it too long to wear on the belt without getting caught on my knees or something. I usually coil the excess cable length and either tuck into my muffin top or into my iPod case. The cable and extension jacks are a bit heavy and tend to pull the buds out of the ear. The instructions on the box are 4 point type on gray cardboard, real hard to read if you could have the cardboard whole. However, they buds were encased in that blister that is difficult to open without damaging the instructions (Sony is not alone with unfriendly packaging, that blister wrap is a national crisis).

Enough whining, gotta get back to work

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:23 pm

It was poorly-named, but of all the mp3 players Sony has thrown out there, I thought this one had a shot.

Pretty much all that's left is for Microsoft to take a shot. Once they've failed, who's left for Apple to defeat?

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:38 pm

They blew it. It needed an AM tuner so I could listen to Jim Rome in the mornings and the Loose Cannons in the afternoon.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:11 pm

I spent $50 on those retarded Sony headphones too- and was frustrated about the cord length also. But, when I use them with my Shuffle, they are perfect. I tie the cord around the zipper pull on my fleece, then plug the ipod into it and tuck it underneath my shirt. No lanyard required! Super cool!

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:09 am

Mac fans get together and eat beans around a fire, then fart against the flames.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:14 am

Guest wrote:
Mac fans get together and eat beans around a fire, then fart against the flames.

You're obviously an idiot. How's that workin' out for ya?

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:32 pm

To Mac fans:

You will fart, and...

Oh, yes there will be beans!

I didn't want to post under Google, because that already has a troll tag on it. But it is me. Google. And I have no self-respect.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:21 am

I have no respect for the Windows community and potential switchers. Mac rulez! Windoze sucks! PC buttheds!

i still didn't want to post under Google. i just wanted to show that yes, I do seem to have no life.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:31 pm

your all a load of twats and Ipod is overhyped crap

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:19 pm

I love the idea of having a radio with my MP3. I can't believe IPOD dropped it. That is the reason I bought the bean and settled for all the faults. I wish it had more accessories. And came with a lanyard. I am sorry to see it go.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:57 pm

Guest wrote:
An FM tuner isn't what I want as a feature of an MP3 player. If I want to listen to FM radio I'll just turn on my radio. The idea of a player is to listen to what you want and not what the radio plays. So I'm not surprised this product failed like the rest of them. All they keep adding is this dumb FM tuner that nobody wants or needs.

actually I like the fact that it has FM available, that is what sold me on it.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:59 am

It's amazing that the creator of walkman and discman phailed against ipod. omg!

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3144 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:47 am

Nobody can maintain the lead indefinitely. The iPod will eventually fall, as will MS Windows, as will any other current "market leader." Rome proved that pretty well a few centuries ago.

All things fall to the "next big thing."

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