Sony to Stop Making Walkmans in Japan
Sony to Stop Making Walkmans in Japan, Shift All Production to China, Malaysia
TOKYO (AP) — The Walkman — whose original model was once Sony’s signature product — will no longer be made in Japan. Sony Corp. said Wednesday that by the end of March it will close a factory that began producing the Walkman music players in 1979 when it first debuted, according to Atsuo Omagari, a Sony spokesman. Production of Walkman brand products will be shifted to plants in Malaysia and China, he said.
The move comes as Sony cuts costs and the competition in the booming digital portable music player market intensifies, where Sony lags far behind Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.
Under the Walkman brand, Sony offers five different types of music players: the original cassette tape player, CD and MD players as well as the one using hard disk drives and flash memory.
The factory being shuttered in Saitama prefecture was the only plant in Japan making Walkmans, producing a Walkman model that uses a hard-disc drive, according to Mami Imada, a Sony spokeswoman.
Japan production of the other kinds of Walkman models had ended earlier, she said.
The Walkman has sold more than 350 million units worldwide since its creation in 1979, and was once the global symbol of Sony’s — and Japan’s — technical prowess.
The Saitama plant stopped making the hard disk drive Walkman in January, Sony said. The factory will be turned into a product design center.
The closure of the factory is the first under a restructuring plan Sony announced last September to revive its ailing electronics operations worldwide.
Under its three-year business plan through fiscal 2007 that ends in March 2008, Sony is seeking to reduce the number of its global manufacturing bases by 11 from 65 at the end of March 2005. Sony’s July-September group net profit plunged 46 percent to 28.5 billion yen ($249 million).
Everything will be made in China, but I was hoping this wouldn’t happen to Sony anytime soon. Anyway, I guess I’m lucky to have a “Made in Japan” NW-HD1…
Basically It doesn`t matter whether they write “Made In China” or “Made in Japan” on their Walkmans because iF THEY MAINTANING THE SAME QUALITY THEN IT DOESN`T MATTER.But since Chinese electronic products are so bad that they becomes useless after sometime.
I would say that “many” Chinese electronic products do not live up to the quality one expects from “Made in Japan”, however a number of companies do manage to have quality control measures which ensure that quality from China is as good as from elsewhere.
I would cite LG and Samsung as prime examples of companies manufacturing in China, but maintaining a higher level of quality than Sony.
Before Sony closes down the rest of its factories and transfers everything to China, I suggest Sony take a look at its own quality management policies elsewhere, as well as other companies’ quality management in China.
Otherwise, it’s going to cost them threefold.
(1) Increased number of defective products at the factory level
(2) Increased number of warranty-period repairs at company expense
(3) Dented image with respect to quality; lower sales as a result (why pay more for Sony when you can get the generic store brand for less and get the same quality?)
“Made in China” is not a problem. Sony’s quality management there, is.
Just to add something…
In India if people know that the product is “Made in China” they sometimes don`t even buy it (Whether it is made by some good company or not ),I read somewhere in the forum that I-Pods are made in china ,So that`s the reason for their poor quality control.See how it easily it gets scratched(This no way near good quality product)I know this is Psycological but China made things worse for themselves.They themselves released low quality products just to capture world market & Now it is going to pay them.
Actually, this is something that is outside the hands of consumers…
If I could find something that was ‘Made In Japan’ I would buy that over the same product that was ‘Made In China’.
But, Abhinav, since you brought up the iPod. I have to reassure you that Apple cares about its consumers and won’t produce goods that don’t live up to their name.
Forget about the whole ‘Made In China’ thing.
In fact, if you want to play safe, buy only high-precision equipment from Japan or at least have somekind of official warranty.