LAB+WEEK+1+SONY+VS+APPLE

Question: Compare and contrast a Sony Walkman with an Apple iPod, and describe the differences in their physical construction, interface design, technology and delivery of sound. Quick sketches are helpful for this analytical process.

Physical Construction:
The Sony Walkman is bulkier and a more rectangular device. The iPod however, is sleeker, thinner, with rounded edges. The difference in headphone size is consistent with the music player: sony's headphones are big and bulky, and the iPod's headphones are small, thin, and take up barely any room, like the iPod itself. Therefore, for portability the iPod is far easier than the walkman to carry around.

Interface Design:
The Walkman is user-friendly. There are key words on the device to assist the user i.e. all the buttons are labelled. The iPod however is a tad more difficult to decipher because the function of the circle (with the play, pause, etc) is also how one scrolls through the music. However one must become accustomed to its use in order to use it properly. Therefore, as far as using the device goes, the walkman is a much easier design to figure out than the iPod, however both do play music. Moreover, the simplicity of the iPod, after one figures out the simplistic design, is as easy, if not easier to use than the Walkman.

Technology:
The Walkman only allows an individual to listen to one tape at a time. The Walkman also only holds music and is quite old fashioned in terms of technological development. The iPod is more up to date with technology in that it has a screen, and allows for many artists to be stored in the player. As well, the memory ranging from so many megabytes to gigabytes allows for not just music to be stored but, with having the screen, pictures and videos can also be stored.

Delivery of Sound:
The bulky headphones of the Walkman don't have very good quality. Moreover, even though they covered the ear, the sound is subject to influence of outside noise thus decreasing the quality. The iPod headphones however, are 'earbuds' that fit nicely in the ear thus increasing listening ability as well as decreasing outside noise.