“Sony showed off the latest addition to its line of Walkman digital music players Wednesday, the NW-HD5. While it is the fifth hard drive player to be released by the company, it will be the first to see worldwide distribution,” Ed Oswald reports for BetaNews. “One major difference, however, is in the design. Unlike Sony’s previous units, the NW-HD5 is designed to stand upright, similar to Apple’s iPod. Users will have the option to use the player on its side if they wish.”
“It is unclear whether Sony intends to market the NW-HD5 as an ‘iPod killer,’ but if so, it may be a hard sell to consumers. A recent survey of teens found that while Sony is second to iPod in terms of the players teens plan to buy, it’s by a wide margin. 70 percent of teens plan to buy an iPod, while only 15 percent plan to buy a Sony player,” Oswald reports. “The NW-HD5 player will first be released in Japan later this month at a street price of $327 USD. Sony said that it will announce plans for a worldwide release in the coming weeks.”
Full article with image of the button-laden device here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever, Killer.
mmmm hmmmm just like vanilla ice…the killa.
That was a funny MDN take.
By the way, that Sony player looks like a small Gameboy.
That thing looks good except the buttons destroy the look. The idea of a game type controller is neat. The battery life is excellent. I could see people buying this product, ONLY if it was MUCH cheaper than the iPod
Good luck Sony
You’re going to need it.
If the icon needs a label what is the purpose of the icon?
Are they kidding or what?
Ooooooohhhh – I can play it on its side! That does it, I’m getting rid of my iPod and buying one of these today.
<sarcasm>
mmmmm, nice
</sarcasm>
I think the Sony “player” that the 15% of teens intend to purchase in not the NW-HD5 (Just rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?) but the PSP (Much better name!).
The PSP seems to be OK for playing a few tunes, but is really a games machine.
Compare and contrast with the iPod which is OK for playing a few games, but is really a music machine.
I don’t see iPods and PSPs affecting each others sales — many folks will have both.
I don’t see Sony selling many music players.
It doesnt look bery cool at all, Ipods are still awsome!!!
i almost puked
boy does that look ugly. What kinda buttons are those?
It looks very ‘cheap’…
“Unlike Sony’s previous units, the NW-HD5 is designed to stand upright, similar to Apple’s iPod. Users will have the option to use the player on its side if they wish.”
WHAT IS THIS? Does this mean it won’t work on its back or upside down, or face down? or however it lands in my jacket pocket?
Yikes! even my old Walkman can be played in any orientation!
What an innovation!
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Eww ugly. Sony some times has nice looking music players this isn’t one of them.
As long as iPod = Cool, all these efforts by others are fruitless…
Just keep making TV’s Sony… Apple’s won this one.
WHAT IS THIS? Does this mean it won’t work on its back or upside down, or face down? or however it lands in my jacket pocket?
Yikes! even my old Walkman can be played in any orientation!
What an innovation!
It means you can choose to have the text display properly (that is up to down) depending on whether you want to use it in a horizontal or verticle orientation.
I mean, c’mon, it’s sexy right? If i were a girl and i had one of these, you’d still want me right? What if I was listening to, I don’t know, Cher? Would that help?
The comments here are just like I said in another thread about HP selling iPods. Everyone was attacking HP for lack of innovation etc. Like I said then, if HP developed their own mP3 failure, I mean player you guys would say how stupid they are blah, blah, blah no one can beat the iPod. If they admit the iPod is the best and try to sell them for Apple they are stupid blah, blah, blah. Does anything make you people happy?
MW- “both” as in- you can’t have it both ways.
Hey Sony
Just License Fairplay and Itunes,
Put a hard drive in the PSP and sell the damn thing already.
Everything else is just a waste. I would seriously consider my next ipod to be a PSP if it ran my music collection.
And as for the button layout. Craptastic checkerboard.
Use that joystick from your Sony Erricson T616 phones. You could pretty much make it one button. Stop with the thousand buttons already.
Geez! Can’t Sony even create its own fonts for the playlist?
Calm down Jerry T. There are lots of Mac fans who don’t think HP’s move to sell iPods was a bad idea. Obviously it wasn’t one of the top 10 business moves of all time, but I give them credit for recognizing that the iPod/iTunes format is so well done that there was no way to compete, so they joined on board.
On the other hand, Sony is trying to sell something called the NW-HD5 to teenagers. That’s just plain stupid.
Solid says:
On the other hand, Sony is trying to sell something called the NW-HD5 to teenagers. That’s just plain stupid.
As much as I hate to agree with people I don’t know, you hit the nail on the head. Like, don’t the Sony engineers get out?
I didn’t think it was all that horrible looking. A bit of a forgettable name, though. Too, the article didn’t exactly brim with specs for the “killer” device.
Ho-hum. The latest “iPod Killer” Nobody has even gotten close yet. Especially when you consider the entire widget.
Gosh that thing is ugly … as someone in the linked forum mentioned …” looks like someone beat it with the ugly stick and ran over it with the ugly bus” …
I’ts not so much that it is ugly per se in terms of components, but that there is no great unity and purposelfulness (ala Apples’s best design creations) in the whole design.
I think this creation will look a whole lot better “after” (MW) the bus comes back and runs over it a few more times …