Sony launches Walkman Bean - Jellybean shaped MP3 Players

August 21, 2005

Sony has launched a jelly bean shaped series of Walkman's that aim to compete with Apple's iPod Shuffle. These come in a capacity of 512MB or 1GB, feature a 1-line OLED display, 50-hour battery, direct PC connection (like a pen drive) and a choice of various colours. An upcoming 512MB model will also feature an FM radio.

The player features a very quick charge of 3 minutes for 3 hours of playback, although a full charge will offer up to 50 hours of playback (4 times the iPod Shuffle). The 512MB and 1GB models will be priced at Â£79 and Â£99 respectively.

Walkman Beans feature a bright 1-line OLED display making navigation through track listings simple, up to 50-hour playback from a Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery and a super high-speed charge facility, which provides the user with 3 hours play from just a 3-minute charge.

Walkman Bean is available in the following great colour schemes: Tropical Ice (Blue), Cotton Candy (Pink), Licorice (Black) and Coconut (White). All colours take their inspiration from various flavours of jellybean, owing to the shape of the device.

Some more details are available on Sony's website.

It's not clear what audio formats this player supports other than MP3 and likely its ATRAC3 format. However, as it appears to lack WMA, this means that it will likely only work with Sony's own online store. So far, Sony has not managed to grab as much of the market as it would like, although they have succeeded becoming the market leader for flash players in Japan.

Source: GadgetSpy