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Comment by visakanv | Hacker News Reader

"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?

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> 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?

I imagine they probably have at least 1 real vending machine, but you're probably right in that the publicity of the story is worth 1000x the sales from the vending machine

It certainly was in my case, because now I am going to investigate buying one!

Hail Corporate!

I doubt it would be the best distribution method :) But it would still be a good idea to put it in some high profile vending machines even if nobody buys it from them. If you saw an MP3 player while you were off to buy some Mike n' Ike, you'd definitely remember that for later if you wanted to buy an MP3 player, and also, very importantly, you'd tell all your friends.

The video probably has a higher return on investment than actually stocking some machines with it, but I can still see it being worth it to stock some vending machines in highly visible places with it.

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.

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

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.

Vending machines often take credit cards over WiFi nowadays. Don't even get me started about the poor security practice of it all.

Plenty of airports have BestBuy vending machines.

Only 188 Susan B. Anthonys/Sacagaweas/Presidential coins. ;)

(the US really needs to get rid of their dollar bill if they expect all these incarnations of the dollar coin to finally catch on)

I remember seeing an iPhone vending machine at a tech event in SF. This was at the Moscone Center not long after the launch of the second generation though.

SFO had vending machines with various electronics last time I was there.

There are vending machines specifically for selling electronics. You can pay by card.

If you watched the video it was a regular soft drink machine and I didn't see a credit card slot option.

in some places, vending machines accept contactless smart cards, which makes it much easier to pay - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smart_cards

More easy for countries where it is supported everywhere, rather than regionally. But also possible to target vending machines in transit areas, since a lot of public transport has moved over to smart cards.

Don't contactless payments usually have a (low-ish) limit on transaction size?

I watched the video and think I saw the guy putting a single coin in the vending machine to buy this.

I didn't mean in this specific video, I just meant that there are vending machines designed specifically for selling electronics.

It won't take any quarters. NZ has 20c pieces, not 25c pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_New_Zealand_dollar...

Even if you could actually buy it in your gym, what would you do with it, until you get back home and connect it with computer? Should it be pre-loaded with some MTV top-charts crap? Should someone periodically refresh the content with current music?

Should someone periodically refresh the content with current music?

That would presumably give Sony the ability to remotely wipe content from the device, which I can't help but imagine them abusing with maniacal glee.

Even if you buy it at Best Buy, what would you do with it until you get back home and connect it with your computer?

Its a bit less of an impulse purchase buying it at an electronics store than a place you'd be motivated to want to use it.

I think the "point" there is not that they can use it immediately, but that the placement in the vending machines aligns perfectly with their target market.

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