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Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

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Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#21

Post by ragall »

sdevonoes wrote: post #4

Got it. But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s? Buying second hand is not that nice (smells that never go away) and “vintage” places sell min. catalogue buy way overpriced.

> But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s?

They can, but people wouldn't want to pay the price. When adjusting for inflation, clothes today are much cheaper than 30 years ago, and the main producers of high-quality cotton (Kazakhstan and Egypt) are having continuous drought problems so the best raw material is even more expensive.

The combination of customer expectation for low prices, and more expensive raw materials, exacerbated by lower production volume, means that very few would be willing to buy. As an example, take a look at the high quality jeans market: there are a few niche companies in Japan, Europe, US and Canada producing jeans at the same level of quality as 50-100 years ago, in some cases the exact same model as, say, a 1950's Levi's. Those jeans start at $200 per pair, but go even up to $400-500 and the manufacturers are barely surviving.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#22

Post by waynesonfire »

I disagree. Sony can't bring back Walkmans because a Walkman won't generate the returns Sony demands. Furthermore, they refuse to open-source it so it stays hidden in a vault.

Plenty of people would lose money, break even, or God willing, make a tiny profit, diving into this problem. Regardless, it would make society a happier place.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#23

Post by ramgine »

trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

Have you looked at fiio? They’ve been doing it a while and aren’t crazy expensive https://www.fiio.com/player

https://a.co/d/055SGJE1

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#24

Post by fortyseven »

nubinetwork wrote: post #15
trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

The iPod was a product in an interesting time... if you ignore the screen, a modern mp3 player could be made as small as a SD card... as soon as you add the screen, you need a full operating system to manage files and run the screen. Nobody wants to put the effort into something that's going to be as basic as a mp3 player.

I find this seriously underestimates what jackets 6 will undertake for fun, even unpaid.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#25

Post by fortyseven »

waynesonfire wrote: post #22

I disagree. Sony can't bring back Walkmans because a Walkman won't generate the returns Sony demands. Furthermore, they refuse to open-source it so it stays hidden in a vault. Plenty of people would lose money, break even, or God willing, make a tiny profit, diving into this problem. Regardless, it would make society a happier place.

Capitalism will make you as happy as necessary to ensure that you continue buying. No more no less.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#26

Post by cwillu »

waynesonfire wrote: post #22

I disagree. Sony can't bring back Walkmans because a Walkman won't generate the returns Sony demands. Furthermore, they refuse to open-source it so it stays hidden in a vault. Plenty of people would lose money, break even, or God willing, make a tiny profit, diving into this problem. Regardless, it would make society a happier place.

s/can't/won't/

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#27

Post by cwillu »

cwillu wrote: post #26
waynesonfire wrote: post #22

I disagree. Sony can't bring back Walkmans because a Walkman won't generate the returns Sony demands. Furthermore, they refuse to open-source it so it stays hidden in a vault. Plenty of people would lose money, break even, or God willing, make a tiny profit, diving into this problem. Regardless, it would make society a happier place.

s/can't/won't/

I can take the grocery delivery order that pays $4, but I won't because the returns for my time and gas are unacceptably low.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#28

Post by stefantalpalaru »

trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

[dead]

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#29

Post by TacticalCoder »

trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

> ... why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players?

I know the late 90s called and want their MP3 straight out of Napster and their 10 GB HDD back but you can safely up the ante to lossless FLAC files.

MP3 is, literally, 30+ years old and I traded my 10 GB HDD for a 1 TB NVMe SSD that could read an uncompressed dump of my entire 10 GB HDD in about two seconds.

FLAC files are only about 2x the size of 320 kbps mp3.

Really, it's 2026. We can do it (I do it).

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