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Thirty years a go this week, a revolution began in the audio market. With Sony’s launch of the TPS L2 Walkman in Japan on July 1st, music was suddenly portable. Aside from it’s size, the player had several features that were innovative for the time, including jewel headphone sockets, volume controls for the left and right audio channels and the distinctive orange hotline button on the top that fade at the tape output and engage to microphone so the listener could talk to someone nearby without stopping the music or taking off their headphones.
The design and much of the mechanics of the TPS-L2 was based on the TCM-100 that came out a year earlier. It was known that journalist and executives had never carried the Walkman brand but the similarity is striking. In 1981, the WM-2 was introduced, notable for it’s improved styling compared to that of the earlier model and then in 1983, just four years after the launch of the Walkman, Sony introduced the WM20 which was the same size as a cassette case. In 1984, the Walkman line expanded with the introduction of the D50, the first CD Walkman.
More CD player Walkmans were to come and so are models based on the mini disc format although they pretty much only found an audience in Japan and amongst the audio professionals. For much of the 80s and 90s, Sony reigns supreme in the personal audio space selling hundreds of millions of Walkman players and becoming the standard by which others were judged. But the arrival of digital music changed things.
Sony’s first Walkman to accept digital files, the NW-MS7 was introduced in Japan in December 2000 and went on sale elsewhere the following year. The product ties Sony’s memory stick flash media format with it’s abstract format and magic gate copy protection. A combination that run against the quick pick up of MP3 amongst consumers. Apple’s entry in to the market in 2001 with the iPod was the first step in what would be a short journey to replace Sony as the most fashionable brand name in portable audio.
In recent years under CEO Howard Stringer, Sony has been attempting to reinvigorate it’s Walkman line and sells have been rising. Sony sold 7 million Walkman players in it’s last financial year out from 4.5 million in 2006, but the poor economy will likely cut about to 6.3 million this year. So this latest flagship model the NWX-1000 packs noise canceling, a bright touch screen display, mobile TV and the ability to surf the internet or watch You Tube videos. It’s a long way from 30 years ago.
In Tokyo, this is Martin Williams, IDG News Service.
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