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Leader: Waking Walkman
How a mixed-up world of phones, cameras, music players and more is rewriting business models as well as rewiring our personal lives

By silicon.com

Published: Tuesday 01 March 2005

For a quarter of a century we've had the Walkman and therefore the idea of carrying around our music with us.

But just as there will one day be cameras by the side of most people (integrated into mobile handsets) so too manufacturers are holding out hopes that music on the move becomes part of the average device.

Sony Ericsson is clearly making that bet, today launching the first of its Walkman-branded phones (actually due out in the third quarter of this year). The Walkman brand now extends beyond Sony MiniDisc players, portable CD players and so on.

Others are also at advanced stages, with the bosses of many handset vendors at the recent 3GSM show declaring 'mobile music' their big idea for the year and, grabbing headlines galore, most eyes on the partnership that Apple and Motorola share to bring iTunes to the US giant's phones.

Will this all work? Our betting is that it will, for many users of mobiles. Generally speaking, mobiles will take a while to catch up with the sorts of storage offered by iPods and other digital music players, though Sony Ericsson's W800 already isn't that far off the iPod Shuffle and other low-end devices. But even then, to many people storing a few dozen albums worth of tracks will be fine.

Others argue that most people are happy to carry separate devices. Plenty of us carry a Blackberry and a mobile phone, or a dedicated digital camera as well as a megapixel handset - so why not keep a music player separate? But even for those who do that, wouldn't it be good also to have music on a phone as a back up?

There is an opportunity. We care, first, because digital distribution of content has huge implications for a significant chunk of advanced economies and second because, well, all of us are consumers.

For a Sony Ericsson, the possibilities are only just being acted upon. How about combining the Sony PSP handheld with a phone? Already a game such as Rayman is being touted on their new handsets.

Similarly yesterday we heard how a company like Virgin might combine a digital music download service with its mobile network.

Business models are being rewritten and enduring brands such as Walkman may just help.