Sony Launch Upstaged By Apple

I guess I wasn't the only one to notice that Sony's launch of a new line of Walkman portable music players was completely overshadowed by Apple. MSN Money reports Sony's launch at a trendy Tokyo live music club was upstaged by Apple's ilaunch of the iPod Nano and Motorola Rokr iTunes phone.

Although the launch itself received decent press coverage, I really had to search high and low for an article that included an analyst's comments. This one did but even then the quote was about Apple!

Commenting on the iPod Nano, Van Baker at Gartner said, "Rival players are going to look big and clunky by comparison." Umm, I guess that includes the Walkman.

The new Walkmans will range from a 2GB Flash-based player to a 20GB hard-drive model. From what I read elsewhere, the comparable Flash models will be more expensive than the new Nano and available in November...in Japan.

I don't know who does Sony's launch planning, but they had over a weeks notice that Apple was going to launch something on September 7. Either they were unaware or just didn't care, but in the end they got crushed in terms of media, analyst and consumer mindshare. Is it any wonder the company is struggling to find its place in the mobile landscape?