The history of the Walkman: 35 years of iconic music players

[Dietrichw]

Source <- check it out as it has all the major improvements of the walkman from its launch 35 years ago to today

 

 

We take portable music for granted these days. Any commuter in any big city in the world is more likely than not to have a pair of earbuds or headphones on as they walk, bike, or ride to their destination. The thing is, personal portable music didn't exist for most of human history, at least not in any mainstream fashion. Not until the Sony Walkman came along.

 

The first of Sony's iconic portable cassette tape players went on sale on this day, July 1st, back in 1979 for $150. As the story goes, Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka got the wheels turning months before when he asked for a way to listen to opera that was more portable than Sony's existing TC-D5 cassette players. The charge fell to Sony designer Norio Ohga, who built a prototype out of Sony's Pressman cassette recorder in time for Ibuka's next flight.

 

After a disappointing first month of sales, the Walkman went on to become one of Sony's most successful brands of all time, transitioning formats over the years into CD, Mini-Disc, MP3 and finally, streaming music. Over 400 million Walkman portable music players have been sold, 200 million of them cassette players. Sony retired the classic cassette tape Walkman line in 2010, and was forced to pay a huge settlement to the original inventor of the portable cassette player, Andreas Pavel. But the name lives on today in the form of new MP3 players and Sony's Walkman app. They heyday of the Walkman may be over, with kids today baffled and disgusted by the relative clumsiness of cassettes. But the habit it spawned — listening to music wherever and whenever you want — is bigger than ever.

 

I think I have a walkman somewhere buried in old stuff

[Tocsin_786]

i still have a walkman i got back in like 5th grade (thiss guyyy http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Walkman-Video-Player-NWZ-A728B/dp/B0013B46UK ). the battery leaked acid so i took it out of its unibody shell. and back then. having a metal back on that thing was amazing. now the only way i can use it is if i connect it to an outlet. but it mostly stays plugged to my ps3 for music.

[aidenscraft]

i legit have one of those

[MegaDave91]

I used to have one as a kid that is no longer with me. 

[JAKEBAB]

I had a cd walkman and my very first phone was a sony ericsson walkman w300 god i miss that phone it was a flip phone and was just a boss

[Misanthrope]

This might as well be called "The history of Sony introducing 1000 and 1 proprietary formats that died"

[StingBull]

This might as well be called "The history of Sony introducing 1000 and 1 proprietary formats that died"

 

What was so proprietary about cassettes and CDs? 

[Misanthrope]

What was so proprietary about cassettes and CDs? 

 

Only the first couple of them are working on cassettes and cds, check the list:

 

-Digital Audio Tapes

-Minidisc

-Memorystick Duo flash cards

[Accursed Entity]

I enjoyed my childhood, I really did, but this right here(refeering to the tape one only) along with dial-up internet, are the things I hated from it. I even preferred the big ass vinyls than this, it was kinda fun at first, to take it on a ride... but oh boy that rewind and forward actions got old really fast. I felt in heaven when they released their Walkman CD players.