
Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water  - mafuyu
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2014/02/11/sony-sells-waterproof-mp3-player-inside-bottle-water/
======
visakanv
"Though the device itself was launched a while ago, Sony turned to Auckland-
based ad agency DraftFCB to help market the product in New Zealand. And so
they came up with the Bottled Walkman, which is sold from vending machines in
public places such as gyms. Check out the demo video for yourself."

That's what's most interesting to me. Have we heard from anybody who's
actually bought the player from a vending machine? This seems to me to be one
of those cases where you don't actually need to do it to get the marketing
value from it- all you need is to make a video of the idea. It's a more
sophisticated form of "This Ad Was Banned!!"

I could be totally wrong, of course.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm saying I don't think Sony's actually selling their
walkmans in bottles of water, they just made a video of the idea of it. Can
anbody disconfirm this?

~~~
rmason
So you expect me to believe that a vending machine where I can buy a Coke for
six quarters that I can also buy an MP3 player for 750 quarters? I am not
buying it.

~~~
etler
Some vending machines take credit cards now. Also, what year are you in? These
cost $78 on amazon (312 quarters), not $187.50! :)

~~~
VLM
USPS has postal vending machines both in the office and a couple major
supermarkets that eat bills up to $20. Same hardware the self-checkout
machines use. Spits out $1 coins as change. So its merely four $20s, or so.

I've seen the same hardware spitting our arduinos and the like at
hackerspaces. If you're worried about mechanical damage we have food vending
machines at work that operate via locking sliding doors.

------
Matsta
Gah can't believe I missed this!

They were in a vending machine at my gym last month! Apparently the promo was
only for 30 days, but in that time they did sell a few (according to the guy
that works there). I saw some guys wearing them (since the gym is above the
swimming pool so you can look down) and it works without a smartphone. I'm
pretty sure the water is drinkable as well.

Pretty bizarre that people had to put cash in to buy it though. I don't
remember there being a Eftpos terminal at all.

Strange this just popped up today though, since I haven't seen any of these
vending machines around in the last few weeks.

~~~
visakanv
Cool, I think you're the first person I've heard from who's actually seen one!
Are you in NZ?

~~~
Matsta
Correct from Auckland. The advertising company DraftFCB is actually on the
other end of the street where I work as well. I told the staff at the gym last
night about how this had blown up in the news and they were very happy that
they were 'beta testers' for this marketing experiment.

------
snake_plissken
I'll hand it to Sony, they can come up with some sweet marketing campaigns.

On a side note, do a lot of people really listen to music while swimming? In
college I used to do 30 minutes of laps in the pool a couple times a week. I
liked doing it precisely because you couldn't listen to music and you'd have
to focus on keeping good form. It was just you and the water.

~~~
mbesto
Waterproof listening devices have always been wishful thinking, but never
actually implemented correctly nor have had the demand properly assessed (lots
of people _think_ they want them, but I'm not sure if they truly do)

Challenges I see:

\- Cords get tangled really easily due to the nature of the sport (Solution -
make them completely in ear)

\- Bulkiness slows you down or at least presents issues when they fall out
(see solution 1)

\- There is no easy way to control volume or change the song (solution -
perhaps use something in your mouth to "chew" on to change these parameters
maybe?)

Swimming (especially the 3-4k I do almost daily) can be painfully dull, so the
demand is sort of there, but it seems the amount of tech involved far
outweighs the presumed benefit (and therefore demand).

~~~
YokoZar
I just keep a pair of waterproof headphones permanently attached to my swim
goggles and keep it in my gym stuff. It's not nearly as big a hassle as you
think - just wrap it up tightly once and you have no cords dangling or
anything while you swim.

------
basseq
Impactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply
chain perspective: water is _heavy_. Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in
normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And
distribution channels for consumables is completely different from
electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.

~~~
visakanv
I can't imagine it needs to be; they just need people to watch the video and
share the headlines on major news sites, Reddit, HN, etc. Suddenly the idea of
Sony's waterproof walkman is in everybody's minds, almost free of charge. Most
people will probably buy it online or from their favourite retail store.

~~~
andygates
After a bunch of "sports players" which are not as waterproof as I'd like, the
marketing is working on me. Disappointment is the norm in this niche.

------
wubbfindel
Is this what they call "immersive marketing"?

~~~
dredmorbius
Whoever came up with this is still wet behind the ears.

~~~
wubbfindel
The marketing campaign, or my pun?

[edit @snowman41: Yes I know "wet behind the ears" is another pun. I was
asking whether "whoever came up with this" refers to the campaign or my
comment.]

~~~
dredmorbius
It's all wet.

~~~
wubbfindel
Fair enough. I just couldn't help myself.

Gotta like a good pun!

------
tommyd
Really cool idea, although a friend pointed out that a very similar idea has
already been done for watches:
[http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2013/6/13/festina-watches-
div...](http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2013/6/13/festina-watches-divers-watch-
in-water-packaging.html)

------
mhb
Why doesn't this have the same legal issues as Kinder Eggs? Maybe the watch in
bottled water also can't be sold in the US?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise)

~~~
dec0dedab0de
Thats interesting, I never heard of that. It sounds like it would technically
apply to fortune cookies too.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Paper is edible; compared to small plastic toys it's practically delectable.
As long as the ink is safe for consumption then there seems little to object
about.

------
josh-wrale
(satire)... "Warning: plastic in Walkman contains lead in California"

... I wouldn't drink the water.

------
pasbesoin
The water is so the rootkits grow better.

(In other words, I don't buy Sony products any more, since they insisted upon
rootkitting their customers' computers some years ago.)

------
swatkat
Looks like it's become a recurring theme at Sony. They had kept Xperia Z demo
phones and tablets under running tap water, at their outlets in Bangalore.

~~~
buster
In Berlin last year, you could win a Sony phone by diving into a tank of water
and fetch one from the ground. If it was a real one, you could keep it :)

------
iamben
What an excellent concept. Reminded me of the '80s(?) when the waterproof
Timex (or was it Casio?) was displayed in fishtanks - you immediately knew
what the product was capable of, as well as it becoming one of those "guess
what I saw earlier" things.

~~~
dredmorbius
There were (are?) watches sold in water-filled containers as well.

------
SixSigma
I'm a Sony hardware fan and I would have bought this device in a heartbeat if
it didn't have such awful battery life. It would be perfect on my bike rides
but I ride all day, not less than an hour.

Happily I have a Sony mp3 player with 30 hours from a single charge.

~~~
SamReidHughes2
It has 7 to 8 hours of battery life, not 1 hour.

edit: According to the tech specs it will get a 1 hour charge after the first
3 minutes of charging.

I have the previous water-resistant model and this seems about right.

~~~
SixSigma
I think I might have been fooled by the "3 minute charge, 1 hour of playback"
claim. it does indeed also claim 7 hours.

That has made me happy, one more bit of Sony kit on the way :)

------
sspiff
I looked at getting one of these for the holidays, but it seems they're not
held firmly into your ears during swimming sessions, according to reviews.
Nice marketing though.

------
NAFV_P
A few weeks ago my mate grabbed his Sony smartphone (I cannot recall the
actual model since I'm clueless about smartphones), started recording a video,
then threw it in the dog's water bowl. Great ten second video, including
distorted sound.

Water ? lame. What about vodka? At times like this I will side with General
Ripper from _Dr Strangelove_. He never drank water, because the commies were
poisoning it to pacify the West.

~~~
girvo
I used to drop my Motorola Defy into friends alcoholic drinks while out as a
party trick and ice breaker (literally?). Worked fine :)

~~~
NAFV_P
Whereas about a dozen years ago I accidentally dropped my girlfriend's phone
in a glass of coke... it was fucked.

It's great technology has advanced so much we can do underwater selfies.

------
pratkar
Gimmicky - yes.

But the larger question is whether the water is actually potable, it being in
vending machines after all!

------
judk
Reminds of the famous story about a Sony exec throwing a device in a fish tank
and seeing bubbles.

~~~
shawabawa3
Wasn't that steve jobs? At least the version I heard was steve jobs with an
iPod prototype (the bubbles proved there was empty space so the ipod could be
smaller)

~~~
gruseom
It's an urban legend.

------
sgdesign
Unless that's a different mp3 player from the one I'm thinking about, it got
pretty bad reviews. It might be waterproof, but most reviewers said that once
water gets in your ear you can't really hear anything.

------
thomc
What about the charger, warranty card, manual, etc? There is space at the top
of the bottle masked by a silver band which might contain something, but
surprised if you could get the charger in there.

------
bhartzer
If you bought this at a gym, would you drink the water that it came in?

~~~
presidentender
Sure. Why not?

------
Luc
Oh for fuck's sake, it's not even a product, it's an ad for an ad agency. What
a waste of time.

But apparently HN commenters are not immune to being fooled...

~~~
Tuna-Fish
You do realize that a lot of the HN crowd is actually much more interested in
purchasing ads from ad agencies than they are in purchasing products, right?
An ad for an ad agency that is fresh and innovative is very much relevant.

~~~
Luc
In that case we may as well post every article on
[http://springwise.com/](http://springwise.com/) to HN. I thought people here
were a bit more hard-nosed.

~~~
glenstein
Or we might just use our collective discretion, selecting interesting examples
every now and again as we please?

------
dublinben
I guess it worked. Waterproof MP3 players have been around for a decade, but
the average consumer probably doesn't know that.

------
ohearb
Definitely going to grab a lot of attention, but a bad idea other than that.
Too costly and impractical.

------
ck2
How do they keep bacteria from growing on it inside the water?

~~~
ars
Add some chlorine to the water.

~~~
maxerickson
Maybe. I'm not sure they would need to, the player isn't going to have much in
the way of nutrients on it.

~~~
ars
You'd be surprised by just how little bacteria needs to grow.

~~~
vacri
Most bacteria are little.

------
rdudek
Interesting marketing tactic. Is that water drinkable?

~~~
auggierose
If it weren't they would be risking severe lawsuits for selling it from
vending machines alongside Coke etc.

~~~
madaxe_again
Actually, it's a _really_ interesting question.

The walkman needs to be safe for use in contact with the skin.

The water needs to be drinkable. Packaging directives look at things like
phthalates in the bottle... but don't consider contents within the bottle
which aren't part of the beverage or beverage serving mechanism.

So... they can, legally, pretty much do whatever the hell they want, as the
Mp3 player does not need to be consumable, the water and bottle will be
quantified as safe by themselves, and the thing as a whole (bottle + water) is
just treated as packaging, so doesn't need to be consumable.

All in all it's the kind of thing that isn't quite covered by product safety
standards, as it's so irregular.

~~~
derekp7
Wouldn't this be the same regulations that cover the "secret toy surprise"
inside CrackerJacks? Or cereal boxes?

~~~
Tuna-Fish
Most of the world doesn't have those regulations. Or, in other words, cue the
surprise of all the Europeans when they realize that Kinder eggs are illegal
in the US.

~~~
thret
The 'which of these is illegal in the US?' meme juxtaposing a gun and a Kinder
Surprise was rather popular a while back. We picture Americans trying to
swallow the eggs whole and choking, but playing with guns safely and
responsibly.

------
chenster
I want one!

------
kimonos
Perfect idea for me!

------
qwoeiu
Fuck sony, from that blog I just found out about fan-made Robocop remake:
[http://ourrobocopremake.com/](http://ourrobocopremake.com/)

How could I miss that?

