Do you know what the first portable music device was? No, it wasn’t a phone, or the iPod, or even the MP3 player. The first original device was Sony’s Walkman.
The original Walkman was thought up by Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony. He came up with the idea of the Walkman when wanting to listen to music while sitting on a plane during flight. Morita teamed up with an engineering team to create something that would revolutionize the way music in which music could be enjoyed.
The original Walkman got its design from a device called the Sony Pressman. The Pressman was a recording device that Sony created and already had the features needed to make a portable audio device.
When the prototype was shown to Morita, he said, “This is good! This will sell well! If we promote this around the world, we’ll reach 3 million in sales before we know it,” according to Toshio Asai, a former Sony engineer, when interviewed by Sony Electronics Asia Pacific.
In 1984, after the Walkman was released in 1979, it outsold vinyl records for the first time since its release. It became such a popular product that in 1986, the Walkman was added into the Oxford English Dictionary, according to ABCNews.
Now in celebration of the Walkman’s 40th anniversary, Sony is bringing back a revamped version of this retro portable music player.
However, due to the introduction of smartphones, some believe there is no use in buying the new Walkman.
“I have no use for it because I have a phone, but I’m sure someone will be able to use it,” Jason Pressely, a senior mass communication major, said. “It sounds kinda dope though … I guess retrotech is cool because of the nostalgic feeling.”
The new Sony Walkman is called a nostalgic interface despite its lack of playing cassettes and it all being digital.
“I can see someone has a use for it because they do not want the hassle of notifications on their phone and wants to [just] listen to music,” Niya James, a senior biology major, said.
The device is powered by Android software. It has high resolution audio compatibility, S-Master HX digital amplifier for pure sound quality, easy Bluetooth connectivity with NFC one-touch, DSEE HX upscaling restores quality and noise-cancelling headphones.
The new Walkman has a 26-hour battery life and holds 16GB of storage. It comes with a microSD slot for extra music storage and is able to connect to Wi-Fi. It also supports both downloaded music and streaming music.
The new Walkman comes in a few different colors including red, orange, ash green, blue and black.
The Walkman will cost $599 and is set to release in December.
