Sony has announced a new model in its Walkman family: the NW-A306. This new model comes 44 years after the release of Sony’s first Walkman, the TPS-L2, which changed the way we listen to music. Since its release, Sony’s Walkman has sold over 400 million units, including 200 million cassette players.
But portable music devices have come a long way from cassettes, and Sony’s NW-A306, available for $400, brings a healthy dose of modernity to a range of aging tech devices.
Sony says the NW-A306 is designed for “sophisticated users looking for high-quality sound and style”, making serious music lovers its target audience. The music player is true to its function, as users can only download music and subscription-based music streaming apps like YouTube and Spotify.
113 grams, 3.6 inch touch screen and Bluetooth connectivity
The Walkman is compact and lightweight, with a weight of 113 grams, a 3.6 inch touchscreen and Bluetooth connectivity. Listeners can enjoy up to 26 hours with a music service app on the Walkman and up to 36 hours of 44.1KHz FLAC playback.
Sony’s new Walkman uses artificial intelligence to improve the quality of compressed digital music files, uses S-Master HX technology to reduce distortion, and employs reflow soldering to improve sound localization.
And for those particularly nostalgic for their first Walkman, the NW-A306’s screen saver displays a cassette tape. A visual effect only since the time when you recorded your favorite song from the radio to the Walkman is over. Users can upload their favorite songs to the Walkman library.
Picture: Sony.
The iPod Touch is already dead
But with the ubiquity of smartphones, what is the need for a music player? Last year, Apple stopped making and selling the latest iteration of its portable music player, the iPod Touch.
Today, everyone has a smartphone in their pocket with which they can listen to music, watch videos, send text messages and make calls from the same device. So why bother with a $400 device that just plays music? The answer may lie in nostalgia and aesthetics.
Nostalgia sells, whatever the generation
Even older millennials were a bit too young to appreciate early versions of Sony’s Walkman. Older Gen Zers are nostalgic for the iPod Shuffle and Nano. And this research suggests that even older adults are embracing technology, but they’re using it at a different frequency than younger people.
Among those who are nostalgic for the Walkman, how many are interested in buying a digital version?
But that doesn’t mean young people don’t understand the appeal of owning a Walkman. These walkmans are still a central piece of retro tech in movies and TV shows.
Fictional characters are so attached to their walkman that they’ll do anything to get it back when it’s been stolen, like in Guardians of the Galaxyor use it outright to save them, as in Stranger Things. It is therefore obvious that the Walkman is an essential part of the culture of young people, regardless of the decade in which they lived their adolescence.
In short, the Walkman defines the characters who listen to it. They can create a playlist to convey their personality, thoughts and feelings to us. So it makes sense that kids nostalgic for the 70s and 80s revisit their younger years, and that younger generations want to feel as cool as their favorite characters.
But the task remains difficult. Sony will have to pack all the sentimentality of the Walkman into a device that is actually a successor to the Walkman, which many people don’t remember.
The subtle quirk of old technology…
But there’s another reason people love retro tech: aesthetics. Aesthetics are key for young people, especially Gen Z. By creating an aesthetic for yourself, you are telling people how they should perceive you. And Gen Z appreciates products and trends from earlier eras.
Gen Z seniors grew up with smartphones, but still remember old technologies like single-use cameras, MP3 players, and portable DVD players. Gen Zers, who grew up with the iPhone 4, often feel overwhelmed by technology now, leading some to reject technologies like smartphones altogether.
And companies realize this. Every year, traditional technologies are repackaged in new variants. From smartphones resembling flip phones to Bluetooth keyboards resembling typewriters, the new Walkman is simply following a popular trend.
Gen Z is becoming more and more interested in retro tech, allowing them to break away from the all-in-one nature of smartphones to define their aesthetic.
Source: ZDNet.com