Don’t look now, but the Walkman’s back.

Actually, the device that virtually created the portable-music market never left; it’s been around as a player for cassettes, CDs and digital music in one form or another since 1979. According to Sony, the company produced 150 million Walkman units during its heyday in 1995. But in recent years, the device has all but fallen off the map thanks to missteps by Sony and huge advances by Apple’s iPod, which has a stranglehold on the digital-music market. Still, Sony will seek to leverage its brand legacy once again with the launch of the Walkman X, a product that comes closer to the iPod line than ever before.

It’s not the first time Sony has tried to revive Walkman. Early in this decade, the company tried to pique interest in the brand with a $30 million campaign from Y&R themed “Walkman has landed.” The effort included commercials featuring an alien character called Plato who brought the newer technology to college campuses with a spot called “Spaceship.”

But it ultimately failed to shake the mighty iPod in the U.S., and it’s unlikely to do so now — a fact pretty much acknowledged by Sony. “I can see where the X series Walkman would be seen as the device that can advance the brand as far as the U.S. goes,” said Mitch Li, senior product manager for Sony Electronics, who oversees the Walkman brand. However, he said that if the “niche product” does overtake the iPod, he’ll be “very pleasantly surprised.” source

Let the battle begin!