Sony's Gorgeous New A-Series Walkman Features OLED, Up To 64GB Capacity
Sony has unveiled the latest update to the A-Series Walkman line with some serious features. The new NW-A840 series, available in black and brown, simply is the most brilliant Walkman offering from Sony to date …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony Insider's look at the new NW-A840 A-Series Walkman lands just three months after reports that Sony was quietly building an Android-based Walkman for a 2010 launch. Read together, the picture is of a company running two tracks at once: polishing its long-standing proprietary player line while an app-platform version waits in the wings.
The competitive backdrop is unchanged since Apple's iPod pulled ahead of rivals back in 2006 with software features like spoken menus — the A840's answer is hardware spec, not platform. An OLED screen and 64GB of flash are the headline numbers, in black and brown colorways.
First-order effects
- Buyers get Sony's highest-capacity Walkman yet at 64GB, plus an OLED display — a straight hardware-spec counterpunch aimed at the iPod lineup in the holiday quarter.
- The A-Series line now spans two strategic bets inside Sony: the refreshed proprietary NW-A840 shipping now, and the unconfirmed Android-based Walkman reportedly targeted for 2010.
Second-order effects
- If the rumored Android Walkman ships as reported, the A840 becomes transitional hardware — and Sony would face the awkward position of selling a closed device against its own upcoming open one.
- Pushing consumer players toward 64GB keeps Sony among the largest buyers of high-density NAND flash, tightening its pull on supply at the top of the capacity curve alongside other device makers racing the same ceiling.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward dedicated media players splitting from smartphones into a premium niche where capacity, display quality and audio pedigree carry the value proposition — with the Walkman brand as Sony's vehicle either way.
- A successful move by Sony onto Android in players would further erode the moat around proprietary portable-OS ecosystems, pressuring every holdout vendor still shipping custom firmware.
The trend: Portable audio is bifurcating between converged smartphone platforms and high-capacity premium players, with Sony hedging across both via the Walkman brand.