The competition is dropping like flies, and being a distant second to Apple is considered a huge success. After only being on the market for a mere six months, the Sony Bean MP3 player is being canned by the company as of this coming April. The kidney-shaped player, though interesting in shape and color, proved to fare poorly at retail outlets. It even had up to 50 hours of battery life, much more than many players on the market, but it just wasn’t enough to keep the Bean growing.

There are several theories as to why Sony decided to bury the Bean. Perhaps it was because the Bean neither supported iTunes (as is expected) nor PlaysForSure, instead making use of Sony’s propriety “Connect” service. Maybe it was the lacklustre Sony SonicStage software that did the Bean Walkman in.

Representatives from Sony, of course, put out a more optimistic statement. Rachel Branch wrote in an e-mail, “We replace models all the time,” perhaps hinting at the possible creation of a successor to the Bean. Maybe one shaped like a Soy bean rather than a kidney bean? Time will tell.