1 Year of The Walkman Blog

It was exactly one year ago that I opened The Walkman Blog. When I created the blog, I was not sure I would be able to keep it updated as often as I wanted due to the lack of Walkman news each month. But somehow I managed to have at least one post each month even though that post could have been nothing important. It has been a slow start and since that start I may only have received 5200 visitors and just over 10,000 page views, and even though this is not huge number, I am still proud of what I achieved since people have a wide variety of blogs to visit. More after the break.

First I'd like to thank all the visitors and supporters of this blog and all the people who have left comments, thank you. One thing I wish visitors did more was post comments and stay on the site longer, currently this is just around a minute and a half, but most people tend to just read and leave. I am proud of the fact that a large chunk of my traffic is driven by Google and this is not a surprise. Hopefully during the next year I can attract more visitors and perhaps get more reviews up, either my own or by other people. I am also planning on finally posting a series of articles on the history of the Network Walkman. I have been planning this for ages but never got the time to finish it. With a bit of luck I can have the first article up either by the end of the month or early next month. 

On Sony’s side of things, I do hope Sony will finally decide to at least synchronize their product lineups in North America, Europe, and Asia. One major issue I have with Sony is that they hardly release any of the larger accessories outside of Japan, which limits what people can use their Walkman for. Another issue are the “Designed for Walkman” accessories that are rarely if ever released outside of Japan. I don’t understand this, companies see that the Walkman is popular in Europe, yet some third party accessories are never sold here. Unfortunately I am not hopeful on this front and expect Sony and third party manufacturers to keep ignoring markets outside of Japan. IFA is just around the corner so perhaps Sony will surprise us with something there but I am not hopeful. 

If not IFA, then perhaps another Sony dealer convention will unveil some new Walkman goodness. But then the last hope is of course CES 2011, where the infamous X-Series was debuted, sadly after the announcement, it took anywhere between 5-7 months before the X-Series went on sale anywhere. Here is where Sony needs to get their act together, they announce a product and it takes ages before it is available to buy. When Apple can announce a new product and have it on sale the same day, I am sure Sony has the capability as well. Now time for predictions, what is next for the Walkman brand? Rumours are still circulating of an Android Walkman which could mean something debuting still before the end of the year. No doubt a new S-Series should debut this year, something to either replace or sit above the S54x. With the A-Series finally receiving the storage bump, it seems to be set for now, but the question of a new X-Series remains out there. Will Sony replace the X-Series Walkman or decide to introduce something different all together? Well, we’ll see.