Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sony Walkman, 1979-2010

Collage composed from the cassette library of Retiring Guy

(I've listened to the Batdorf & Rodney cassette twice during the past month, though not on a Walkman.  Provided good company while painting a side of the house.)

Link to October 24 Mashable post, "Sony Retires the Cassette Walkman After 30 Years".

Excerpt: After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman, the first low-cost, portable music player.

The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media. Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.

The first generation Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan. Although it later became a huge success, it only sold 3,000 units in its first month. Sony managed to sell some 200 million iterations of the cassette Walkman over the product line’s 30-year career
.

Walkman History 101.
A Brief History of the Walkman.  (Time, 7/1/2009)

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