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It's officially the end of an era, folks, one that quite frankly we're surprised lasted as long as it did. In any event, Sony announced it has stopped the Japanese production of its once popular Walkman portable cassette players.
This marks the end of a 31-year run from when the Walkman first went on sale in Japan back on July 1, 1979. At the time, the design was a near-instant hit and served as the forefather to today's spate of portable music players, including Apple's uber popular iPod and Microsoft's me-too Zune.
According to Sony, more than 400 million Walkmans have been sold worldwide until March 2010, a little over half of which were cassette-based models. Going forward, the Walkman brand will live on through CD, MD, and flash memory-based models.
TPS-L2, which would later carry the Walkman branding, was the first commercially sold personal stereo cassette player.
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oleg.ko@gmail.com
October 26, 2010 at 9:12pm
I have Walkman in all incarnations (tape, CD, MD and flash). It was good when it lasted but Sony lost it. Good bye old friend. The King is dead. Long live the King (one who is growing apples orchard).
riopato
October 26, 2010 at 12:08am
was unneccessary. Zune has become one of the better alternatives to Apple ipod and I feel that Zune's design trumps Apple's not to mention that the desktops software for zune is far better than crapware like iTunes. If only the zune desktop was made for Mac or at least the connector software was for Zune hd, where would the market be?
Also it's nice to know that a tech writer is still bias when comparing Apple to Microsoft. Even when the article has nothing to do with either and especially when he is writing for a magazine titled MAXIMUM PC!!!!!!
Ashton2091
October 25, 2010 at 11:52am
I'll be honest....I assumed that they had already stopped making them five or 6 (or more) years ago. It's news to me that they have still been making them :-/
igoka
October 25, 2010 at 10:37am
No seriously I don't know anyone who would use cd player anymore .
Pablo-man
October 25, 2010 at 9:25am
Damn! I would be sorry to see them go, if I knew they were still being produced.
lunchbox73
October 25, 2010 at 9:04am
Damn! I was planning on making a mixed tape for my girl friend this weekend. Do you know how long I had to wait to hear one of her favorite songs on the radio so I could record it?
Queenof1
October 26, 2010 at 12:50pm
wow, the memories. I have to listen to them so I can make a mix-CD.
