Sony Walkman perched atop in Japan

Sony has finally wrested from Apple what it thought to be its perpetual property in Japan – top spot in the portable media player market since introducing the Walkman all those decades ago. Yes sir, the new generation of Walkmans that support MP3 files instead of cassette tapes have now overtaken Apple’s iPods in terms of market share – the first time ever in the past four years. The lead is razor thin though, with Sony ahead by a mere 1.1%, and the result was calculated through the sheer volume of sales although Apple’s 8GB iPod nano is still on top by taking up 21.7% of the total market. Could the iPhone’s release contribute to this decline?