The early portable music players existed in Tape format, a rectangular device that was chunky (at least the size of a tape) and although did the job of playing music on the move, had many, when compared to today’s technology, annoying features. Number 1: in order to play all your favourite music, you had to transport an array of cassette tapes around with you, usually in a very stylish, plastic tape box. Number 2: Let’s say you put your tape in your walkman and fancy listening to track 4 on the album, this would mean either fast-forwarding or re-winding, depending on which side you listened to last, all the way to song you wanted. This wouldn’t have been so bad except you had to keep stopping the tape and trying to guess how far along you’d gone and how much longer you needed to search for.



Fast Forward to the Era of CD’s and Mini Disc’s

Before the days of Mobile Phones, there were devices called CD’s and Mini Disks (they weren’t around very long) which took away the need to fast-forward and re-wind, as with a simple press of the skip button you could select any track you wanted to hear. However, you still needed to cart your music collection around with you, all be it a slightly smaller carry case, it still wasn’t practical to put in you pocket and you still had to change the disk when you had enough of one album.

Need more persuasion? What about chewed tapes and scratched CD’s?

Ditty Little Digital…

And the evolution continues, with one of the latest Walkman phones available, the Sony Ericsson W850i shows off just how far portable music has come. There is no need to fast-forward or Re-wind, no need to carry your music collection and now even no need to carry a Walkman, you know that you have your mobile phone on your person all the while, your also now have your music too. Stored digitally, your music collection is carried on a micro chip smaller than your finger nail, your walkman is disguised as you’re a phone and the sound is arguably better than any music playing device that has gone before. Sony Ericsson has also made it easier to get music onto your phone. link it up with your PC download music online, A dedicated Play-Now feature allows you to go online, preview tracks you want from a massive database, then purchase the mp3's you want.

There are so many features available on this phone; music is just the start…