Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models • Hacker News Board

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

#251

Post by SirHackalot » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

psd1 wrote: post #249

SirHackalot wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throw the USSR in there as well. Central planning allowed them to leap from an agrarian society to launching Sputnik and putting the first human in space, which spooked us into kickstarting the space race. It wasn’t market incentives that did that.

The USSR performed _somewhat_ well, but i wouldn't say it clearly outperformed the west given the whole "collapse" thing. I could argue the point, but only weakly. It's more illuminating to pick the two exemplars, America and China, because they have many parallels

It outperformed the west in some things, notably not computing (which sealed its fate). I agree though. But I think there’s also something to be said about the way in which the experiment ended. Compared to the bloody, violent disintegration of most historical superpowers, the dissolution of the USSR was a remarkably swift, self-inflicted, and low-violence event.

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

#252

Post by vkaku » Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 11:18 PM UTC

If the market otherwise can make other cassette players work, This looks like a Sony problem than a general problem.

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

#253

Post by psd1 » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 11:23 AM UTC

SirHackalot wrote: post #251

psd1 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USSR performed _somewhat_ well, but i wouldn't say it clearly outperformed the west given the whole "collapse" thing. I could argue the point, but only weakly. It's more illuminating to pick the two exemplars, America and China, because they have many parallels

It outperformed the west in some things, notably not computing (which sealed its fate). I agree though. But I think there’s also something to be said about the way in which the experiment ended. Compared to the bloody, violent disintegration of most historical superpowers, the dissolution of the USSR was a remarkably swift, self-inflicted, and low-violence event.

It's hard to layer meaning over social media comment, but what i wanted to express was the nonsensicality of reducing history to "yay capitalism".

There's a common strand of thought that goes "America is emphatically capitalist, America is successful, ergo success is due to capitalism". But America finished WWII with a proportionally-small loss of life and a massive and intact industrial base while all the existing powers were in a heap of wreckage. It then held the mortgage on reconstruction and dictated the terms of the peace.

With advantages like that, it would be remarkable if they didn't end up on top of the pile. Capitalism was merely the vehicle, and other vehicles would have been equally adequate.

People who need answers to be simple will continue to make bold claims about the relative merits of capitalism. It's just identity signaling. I'd like to cull humans who, in adulthood, decline to develop critical thinking skills. These people vote, and they shouldn't.

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

#254

Post by tancop » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 12:15 PM UTC

tonyhart7 wrote: post #83

plorg wrote: post #63

Article is just a (wordy) recapitulation of this tweet from a former Walkman engineer: https://x.com/akiraa_tanaka/status/2080114490830680500 But fair play to OP, you'd have to bounce it through at least Google Translate to make it legible to the predominant English-speaking HM crowd: https://x-com.translate.goog/akiraa_tanaka/status/2080114490... Still would have been good for the Substack author to link to the twee…

Yes, that is the primary reason people just want it but not enough people to buy the thing same happen with physical games

people buy physical games when its an option. take god of war ragnarok where more than 60% of copies sold were on disk. its a totally different situation from niche products with no existing supply chain.

sony numbers are distorted because most third party games are digital only, and the average players preference for physical is not so strong that they wouldnt buy the game at all. its also not counting sharing or second hand sales so the number of players on physical is even higher.

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

#255

Post by ectospheno » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

tancop wrote: post #254

tonyhart7 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is the primary reason people just want it but not enough people to buy the thing same happen with physical games

people buy physical games when its an option. take god of war ragnarok where more than 60% of copies sold were on disk. its a totally different situation from niche products with no existing supply chain. sony numbers are distorted because most third party games are digital only, and the average players preference for physical is not so strong that they wouldnt buy the game at all. its also not counting sharing or se…

I have five PS5 discs from around launch. Gifts. It is such a pain finding them and putting them in only to download a patch anyway. I’d sell them but I don’t want to perpetuate them as a thing so I’ll likely just throw them away.

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

#256

Post by parl_match » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

klausa wrote: post #86

parl_match wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players the burning answer is really, by the time you've chosen a modern merchant soc, and put a screen on it, you're really more or less at the same BOM cost as a very low end android device (and frankly, the soc bsp you chose is likely to be android/aosp to begin with) so you're basically competing head to head with every shitphone maker out th…

>the burning answer is really, by the time you've chosen a modern merchant soc, and put a screen on it, you're really more or less at the same BOM cost as a very low end android device (and frankly, the soc bsp you chose is likely to be android/aosp to begin with) This is, incidentally, also almost universally an answer to "why doesn't nobody make a dumb TV anymore?!" The off-the-shelf SoC that handle the TV decoding…

the race for margins has gotten so intense that actually, actively not scraping viewer data and using it for ad marketing means that even a non-spying smart tv is less economically feasible

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

#257

Post by tonyhart7 » Wed, Jul 29, 2026, 8:10 AM UTC

ectospheno wrote: post #255

tancop wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people buy physical games when its an option. take god of war ragnarok where more than 60% of copies sold were on disk. its a totally different situation from niche products with no existing supply chain. sony numbers are distorted because most third party games are digital only, and the average players preference for physical is not so strong that they wouldnt buy the game at all. its also not counting sharing or se…

I have five PS5 discs from around launch. Gifts. It is such a pain finding them and putting them in only to download a patch anyway. I’d sell them but I don’t want to perpetuate them as a thing so I’ll likely just throw them away.

why tf you have five PS5