Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water • Hacker News Board

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#61

Post by ctdonath » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 5:49 PM UTC

basseq wrote: post #13

Impactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply chain perspective: water is heavy . Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And distribution channels for consumables is completely different from electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.

16oz of water go for $1.50 or less everywhere. I don't think widespread distribution will be a problem.

Bigger problem is that once you buy it, you still need to take it home, dry it off, and load music on it.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#62

Post by SamReidHughes2 » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 5:52 PM UTC

SixSigma wrote: post #59

I'm a Sony hardware fan and I would have bought this device in a heartbeat if it didn't have such awful battery life. It would be perfect on my bike rides but I ride all day, not less than an hour. Happily I have a Sony mp3 player with 30 hours from a single charge.

It has 7 to 8 hours of battery life, not 1 hour.

edit: According to the tech specs it will get a 1 hour charge after the first 3 minutes of charging.

I have the previous water-resistant model and this seems about right.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#63

Post by desireco42 » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:10 PM UTC

basseq wrote: post #13

Impactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply chain perspective: water is heavy . Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And distribution channels for consumables is completely different from electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.

Yet however heavy water is, they manage to sell you bottled water for pennies and still make billions off of you.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#64

Post by dredmorbius » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:14 PM UTC

wubbfindel wrote: post #42

dredmorbius wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever came up with this is still wet behind the ears.

The marketing campaign, or my pun? [edit @snowman41: Yes I know "wet behind the ears" is another pun. I was asking whether "whoever came up with this" refers to the campaign or my comment.]

It's all wet.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#65

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:14 PM UTC

basseq wrote: post #13

Impactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply chain perspective: water is heavy . Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And distribution channels for consumables is completely different from electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.

The delivery guy could just fill it up from the tap at the selling location.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#66

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:15 PM UTC

snake_plissken wrote: post #11

I'll hand it to Sony, they can come up with some sweet marketing campaigns. On a side note, do a lot of people really listen to music while swimming? In college I used to do 30 minutes of laps in the pool a couple times a week. I liked doing it precisely because you couldn't listen to music and you'd have to focus on keeping good form. It was just you and the water.

Along that line the pool at USC had an underwater speaker system. It was nominally to allow coaches to give input to swimmers as they were swimming but we managed to put music on it a couple of times. Fun but annoying to the other swimmers if they didn't like your music choices.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#67

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:19 PM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #55

mhb wrote: post #12

Why doesn't this have the same legal issues as Kinder Eggs? Maybe the watch in bottled water also can't be sold in the US? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

Thats interesting, I never heard of that. It sounds like it would technically apply to fortune cookies too.

Paper is edible; compared to small plastic toys it's practically delectable. As long as the ink is safe for consumption then there seems little to object about.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#68

Post by wubbfindel » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:22 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #64

wubbfindel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The marketing campaign, or my pun? [edit @snowman41: Yes I know "wet behind the ears" is another pun. I was asking whether "whoever came up with this" refers to the campaign or my comment.]

It's all wet.

Fair enough. I just couldn't help myself.

Gotta like a good pun!

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#69

Post by mbq » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:26 PM UTC

mhb wrote: post #12

Why doesn't this have the same legal issues as Kinder Eggs? Maybe the watch in bottled water also can't be sold in the US? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

I guess EU would require Sony to certify the player for food contact and that would be expensive enough to be not worth the trouble. Or require to wipe any suggestions that the water is drinkable.

Re: Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water

#70

Post by Nacraile » Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 6:30 PM UTC

desireco42 wrote: post #63

basseq wrote: post #13

Impactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply chain perspective: water is heavy . Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And distribution channels for consumables is completely different from electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.

Yet however heavy water is, they manage to sell you bottled water for pennies and still make billions off of you.

Very different supply lines. Bevereages companies have many bottling facilities distributed throughout their markets, electronics companies tend to have relatively centralized manufacturing.

With low value:weight beverages, transport costs dominate manufacturing, so it is most economical to have many bottling facilities relatively close to consumers, at the cost of reduced manufacturing economy of scale. With electronics, manufacturing costs dominate transport costs, so it is most economical to centralize manufacturing, taking advantage of economy of scale.

Of course, sony could work with some drinks manufacturer to hybridize those supply chains, but I don't think there's value in doing this large scale. This is a (great!) marketing gimmick, and they can get most of the value by doing it one-off. There's not a lot of marginal value in scaling it out.