Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Walkman Creator Leaves Sony

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the walking-shoes dept.

Gammu writes "Nobutoshi Kihara, the engineer behind the Walkman, has left Sony. In the late seventies, one of the co-chairman of Sony, Morita, requested the audio division create a portable tape player capable of playing his operas while he was on transpacific flights to the US. After less than a year, the Walkman was released to the public and revolutionized the music industry. Read about the development of the first Walkman at Low End Mac."

24 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. THe Walkman by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

    I remember my first Walkman, and blasting "Ghost Busters". I thought I was so cool... now I post on Slashdot. The Walkman helped define a generation, and was one of the products that helped introduce more than one generation to the future of mobile music technology.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:THe Walkman by joe+155 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Walkman helped define a generation

      Indeed it did, in the same way the iPod has done now. There is a lesson to Apple here about not taking customers and market share for granted.

      --
      *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
    2. Re:THe Walkman by Chaffar · · Score: 5, Funny
      I remember my first Walkman, and blasting "Ghost Busters". I thought I was so cool... now I post on Slashdot.
      It's hard to believe one could fall so low just by listening to crappy music on a portable tape player...
    3. Re:THe Walkman by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is no lesson here.
      Sony were in the right place at the right time and managed to define a generation.
      Running a business is like a river, it ebbs and flows along. Sometimes its slow, other times its a raging torrent but as long as you stay in the boat you will reach the ocean.

      There are many products which define a generation, the walkman was one of those Nobutoshi Kihara and Sony should be proud of their achievements.

      Apple have caught the wave this time, and in another 5-10 years someone else will.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    4. Re:THe Walkman by Barryke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I beleive what your parent meant was the whole Sony PS3 story.

      Leads to 'not creating a displeased public opinion concerning your brand or flagship product'

      --
      Hivemind harvest in progress..
  2. Walkman patent case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article doesn't mention the German inventor that Sony settled with a couple of years ago. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/01/walkman_pa tent_case/

    1. Re:Walkman patent case by arose · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A patent that describes both a Walkman and an iPod? How far into the "idea, not implementation" and "obvious" fields does one have to wander to not get a few million from someone who actualy did what you only had a fogy idea of?

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  3. Original Walkman by in2mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do any of you still have the original 1979 Walkman in working condition now?

    --
    Wincopy
    1. Re:Original Walkman by Andy+Gardner · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think I've still got one somewhere probably still works, although it did start chewing up tapes in the early 90's.

  4. JESUS GOD NO!! by slughead · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean they'll stop making walkmans?

    These newfangled 'CD's will never catch on!

    --
    Latewire
  5. Or, to say it less flamebaitshly by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not so much "left Sony" as "retired". Seriously, both the summary and TFA are like "Sony in major world of poo - engineers leaving", rather than "trailbreaking engineer retires".

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Or, to say it less flamebaitshly by MP3Chuck · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But, unfortunately, while both headlines are true, the summary/tfa headlines "sell" more clicks. You'd think /. would avoid joining the ranks of the rest of the "Sensationalist Media," though.

      --
      Who doesn't like free music?
  6. Walkman Vs. Ipod by BRUTICUS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sony has a name that is still embedded in everyone's mind. If they were smart they would create their own Ipod killer and name it Walkman in a huge marketing campaign. Instead they are tarnishing the Walkman name and calling every single device they have that's capable of playing MP3s "Walkman".

    There is huge room for new MP3 devices still. Even with the Zune. The Ipod takes up such a large marketshare and it is a product that is frankly geared towards Mac users in a world that is dominated by PC users. Don't' tell me it's not geared towards mac users either. The thing manages all the MP3 files on your hard drive AND on the device its own way. That is the Mac way. Hiding your files and giving you a GUI.

    1. Re:Walkman Vs. Ipod by hhawk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They had or have a digital walkman..

      But they were at launch, all tied into their Memory Stick products...

      To expensive for my tastes. I can think of 3-4 products I didn't buy from Sony because I didn't want to be locked into the Memory Stick. I think it's the thinking behind the marketing of the Memory Stick that has lead to their decline.

      Granted it's hard as a World Leader; if you build new products in a open standard everyone is going to rush in and build to the same standard and you'll create a huge market with lowering margins.

      Clearly it's better to milk the Betamax and Memory Sticks markets as your cash cows ;)

      --
      http://www.hawknest.com/
  7. He retired by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Informative

    The man is 80 years old. I think it would be better to say he "retired" rather than he "left". It's not like he quit in disgust or took a better offer somewhere else.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    1. Re:He retired by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Now they'll change it for:

      At 80 yo, finally the walk-man retires.

  8. Fixed by Mini-Geek · · Score: 2, Funny

    Walkman Creator Walks
    Title fixed

    --
    do {print "Mini-Geek Rules!\n";}
    until ($TheEndOfTheWorld);
    1. Re:Fixed by trs9000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Suggested alteration:

      Walkman Creator Walks, man.

  9. Behind the lightweight headphones by rkodama · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's worth noting that the Walkman's lightweight headphones were made possible by the discovery and development of samarium cobalt (SmCo) permanent magnets in the early 1970's. Materials (e.g. AlNiCo) that existed before that were not only much weaker, but could only be made in elongated shapes, resulting in much bulkier voice coil assemblies.

  10. The real inventor by KeepQuiet · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/16/news/profil e.php
    "Inspired by those discussions, Pavel invented the device known today as the Walkman. But it took more than 25 years of battling the Sony Corporation and others in courts and patent offices around the world before he finally won the right to say it: Andreas Pavel invented the portable personal stereo player."

  11. Missed opportunity for topic title. by psu_whammy · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is a perfect time to break out the Variety-speak, and you let it go completely.

    WALKMAN MAN WALKED, MAN!

  12. If the Walkman had been released in 2006... by stud9920 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If the Walkman had been released in 2006, it would have used an exotic, overpriced format of cassettes only used by Sony, and would only have been ready in 2008 at a cost of $800.

    1. Re:If the Walkman had been released in 2006... by gamer4Life · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well it was released in 2003, and it used a format only used by Sony:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman#Network_Walkm an

  13. More History, for those interested. by JimB · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/index.html

    Is, of course, produced by SONY, so it has a slant, but there are TONS of stories about this company and its products. Quite a few of them seem to be written WITH the folks who actually worked on whatever product they are describing. Very interesting.

    Oh, Cowboyneal: A few more 'headlines' like that, and we will start believing you went to the Dan Rather School of Journalism.