Sony Ericsson W200
I was part of a design team responsible for the W200 in my role as Senior Industrial Designer at Sony Ericsson Creative Design Center.
I joined the team at Sony Ericsson Creative Design Center in Lund, Sweden in the winter of 2006. An exciting place to be. One of the first projects I did was the W200, a low-end Walkman phone. Early in 2006 Sony Ericsson launched the first Walkman phone, the W800, which would go on to be very successful and spawn a whole portfolio of Walkman phones. At that time very few mobile phones had a dedicated music player, and there were hardly any music propositions on the market, so it was perfect timing to re-introduce the half-forgotten Walkman brand from co-owner Sony.
The W200 was to be the first real low-end Walkman phone, targeted especially at Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. The starting point for the W200 was the K510 phone; Use the same architecture and button layout but change every detail so it looked and felt like a real Walkman phone. Make the speaker detail more expressive, make the button layout and design more playful and funky and add a physical shortcut to the Walkman player on the side and use a color and trim treatment inspired by its bigger brother, the W800.
The W200 launched in 2007 and went on the become one of the best selling Walkman phones ever.
I joined the team at Sony Ericsson Creative Design Center in Lund, Sweden in the winter of 2006. An exciting place to be. One of the first projects I did was the W200, a low-end Walkman phone. Early in 2006 Sony Ericsson launched the first Walkman phone, the W800, which would go on to be very successful and spawn a whole portfolio of Walkman phones. At that time very few mobile phones had a dedicated music player, and there were hardly any music propositions on the market, so it was perfect timing to re-introduce the half-forgotten Walkman brand from co-owner Sony.
The W200 was to be the first real low-end Walkman phone, targeted especially at Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. The starting point for the W200 was the K510 phone; Use the same architecture and button layout but change every detail so it looked and felt like a real Walkman phone. Make the speaker detail more expressive, make the button layout and design more playful and funky and add a physical shortcut to the Walkman player on the side and use a color and trim treatment inspired by its bigger brother, the W800.
The W200 launched in 2007 and went on the become one of the best selling Walkman phones ever.
