Sony Discontinues the Walkman

Ponca City writes "Crunchgear reports that after selling 200,020,000 units worldwide since its inception over thirty years ago, Sony has announced that it is pulling the plug on the manufacture and sales of the Walkman, the world's first portable (mass-produced) stereo. Magnetic cassette technology had been around since 1963, when Philips first created it for use by secretaries and journalists, but on July 1, 1979, Sony Corp. introduced the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a 14 ounce, blue-and-silver, portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones, a leather case, and a second earphone jack so that two people could listen in at once. The Walkman was originally introduced in the US as the 'Sound-About' and in the UK as the 'Stowaway,' but coming up with new, uncopyrighted names in every country it was marketed in proved costly so Sony eventually decided on 'Walkman' as a play on the Sony Pressman, a mono cassette recorder the first Walkman prototype was based on. The popularity of Sony's device — and those by brands like Aiwa, Panasonic and Toshiba who followed in Sony's lead — helped the cassette tape outsell vinyl records for the first time in 1983 as Sony continued to roll out variations on its theme with over 300 different Walkman models, adding such innovations as AM/FM receivers, bass boost, and auto-reverse on later models and even producing a solar-powered Walkman, water-resistant Sport Walkman, and Walkmen with two cassette drives." For now, at least, the Walkman brand lives on for some of Sony's media players and phones.

Comments

Daddy what's a cassette?

[commodore64_love]

Hard to believe something that was once the #1 format for music (late 80s and early 90s) is now foreign to anyone college aged or younger.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[scottrocket]

Yeah, they're actually more familiar with old-school vinyl than cassette. Life is strange.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[couchslug]

It was also the first convenient format for file sharing.

Reel-to-reel tape decks were "servers" to which vinyl records were ripped. Sneakernet took care of the logistics.

Now help me find my lawn...

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[JustOK]

pfft, wandering minstrels FTW!

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Ah BetaMax, yet another another superior proprietary Sony format. I already feel so lucky that BluRay won this format war.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[hedwards]

Sneakernet was definitely better than the Internet in some ways. Sure latency sucked, but the bandwidth was amazing. Plus as long as you traded just with friends the likelihood of the BSA finding out about your pirated software was almost nothing.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[commodore64_love]

>>>BetaMax ftw

Myth. VHS and Betamax have almost-identical specs (see below). In fact VHS has one advantage Betamax did not have: It could hold 10.5 hours per tape, while Betamax maxed-out at just 5.5 hours. VHS is the superior standard, and that's why it won.

VHS Bmax feature
yes yes Hi-Fi sound?
250 240 Lines of horizontal resolution (420 for Super VHS)
3.0 3.0 Luma Bandwidth in megahertz (5.5 for Super VHS)
0.6 0.6 Chroma Bandwidth
10+ 5.5 Hours of record time

Oh and before you mention professional usage, that's BetaCAM not betamax. Completely different format (like Mac vs. PC vs. Amiga floppies). While Betacam was superior to VHS, Betamax was not. It was mostly identical, or inferior (in terms of record time).

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[commodore64_love]

Bluray's not owned by Sony (like beta was). Bluray is owned by multiple companies under the umbrella organization called "Bluray Consortium" similar to the DVD consortium.

BTW vhs was also proprietary. It was owned by JVC. I didn't see that our lives were harmed by that fact?
And CDs and Cassettes are also proprietary.
The world did not end when they were dominant.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I suspect that there are two phenomena at work, actually seen all over when it comes to deprecation of technology:

1. Some formats/technologies are inferior even at the time they were made, but justified by the compromises of the time. In this case, analog cassette tape was relatively low-fi(gradually improved, but wow and flutter really sucked), had to be rewound, and was vulnerable to tape-chewing incidents. Even at the time, it was justified against reel-to-reel only by cost and portability(nice thing about tape is, for all its vices, you can always make it better just by making it bigger) and was at best sonically even with vinyl, but again smaller and cheaper. People who are into 'retro-chic' tech are rather less likely to latch onto the compromise tech, unless the good stuff was so wildly expensive that it remains unreachable to them to this day.

2. The 'futuristic'-'contemporary'-'obsolete'-'retro'-antique' progression: As a technology ages, its appeal changes in a rather nonlinear way. During the 'futuristic' stage, it is lustworthy; but either absurdly expensive or not actually ready for the real world. High mindshare; but zero marketshare. The 'contemporary' phase marks the peak of a technology's marketshare, when it is the basis of the vast majority of whatever systems it is relevant to; but this actually weakens its appeal. People might value what it does; but it is common to the point of banality. 'Obsolete' is the nadir of something's appeal. Marketshare is still quite high, albeit with gradually declining install base; but it is perceived as actively inferior to whatever has become 'contemporary'. It is often still architecturally similar, so it has no exotic appeal; but is worse, slower, uglier, whatever. A wintel from 1995 would qualify. Architecturally, it is nearly identical to one of today, only worse in basically every respect. 'Retro' is a stage that only some technologies every achieve. Here, the technology has become sufficiently alien from whatever is 'contemporary' that its flaws and quirks are seen as charming, rather than directly compared against the present, and any unique advantages it had have rabid fanboys. Things like record players, c64s, anything BeOS(retrocomputing in general, really), are here. 'Antique' is somewhat similar to retro; but applies to technologies so old or esoteric that they have basically fallen out of the market. Only a few hardcore specialists or obscure hobbyists have them, production is either artisanal or nonexistent, and so forth. Edison cylinder machines, difference engines, Thinking Machines systems, and the like qualify.

Tape is a poor contender on both points. Even during its time of greatest popularity, it was always the poor cousin to something cooler; but either more expensive or less portable. It also seems to have missed out on 'retro'(with the very limited exception of being a useful source for found-sound artists/musicians of various sorts); but still has decades to go before it has a shot at being antique.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[scottrocket]

"It also seems to have missed out on 'retro'(with the very limited exception of being a useful source for found-sound artists/musicians of various sorts);"

That just reminded me of this. It seems some indy film makers still enjoy "the look" this cassette camera generates.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[Dogtanian]

The longest readily available tape was the T-120. [..] 10.5 hours per tape sounds like a security tape setting. "At 10.15 this morning, a grey blob entered the store, and subsequently pulled out a dark gray blob, and brandished it at the cashier."

Well, you'd be surprised; I got a watchable 12 hours from my most recent (circa 2004) VHS recorder.

To be fair, this was a PAL model, and PAL tapes ran slower for some reason (*). However, by the early-90s, E-180 and E-240 tapes (**) were already widely available and the most common.

So I had a few E-240 tapes and used them on EP (one-third speed) which was actually quite watchable on a portable set; slightly inferior to standard play speed, but not as much as you'd expect. (***) 'Course even then I knew that I'd end up with a DVR sooner rather than later, so it was a bit late to get a machine with that nice perk.

(*) Don't know why, as AFAICT the total number of lines per second works out almost identical.
(**) *Blank* tapes are identical and interchangeable between NTSC and PAL, but the different speed- and hence running time- means it makes more sense to have different systems, e.g. an E-180 tape would be a T-129 on an NTSC machine.
(***) Though that model had Hi-Fi stereo, which didn't suffer as much due to the decrease in speed. Mono non-HiFi models had linearly-recorded sound which was signficantly degraded even at LP (half-speed) because the linear speed of the tape was *very* slow.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[dunkelfalke]

The reason is 50 Hz frame rate for PAL and 60 Hz for NTSC.

The 50 Hz frame rate (half frames actually which leads to 25 full frames per second) is also the reason why cinema movies (which use 24 fps) are sped up on PAL video.

Re:Daddy what's a cassette?

[commodore64_love]

>>>Betamax had slightly higher chroma bandwidth then VHS and stored a reference color burst on the tape.

That's BetaCAM not betamax. VHS and Betamax both used the same "color under" system, with just 0.6 MHz bandwidth. i.e. No difference. In fact some have claimed JVC simply stole a Betamax deck and copied its design, since they are near identical, but nobody's been able to prove it.

Another disadvantage Betamax had was the tape-handling system. In made rewinding and fast-forwarding a tedious process, and also prevented Sony from releasing a Betamax camcorder that could do instant playback (like VHS and VHS-C could do).

Back then "walkman" was fine?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nowadays this would be called a Walkperson.

Don't forget the Micro-Walkman

[sonicattack]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/aw-what-the-hell-heres-the-microwalkman-weve-been,17178/

Checking some history, one interesting tidbit...

[sznupi]

When Sony released the first Walkmans, they featured two headphone jacks and a "talk button." When pressed, this button activated a microphone and lowered the volume to enable those listening to have a conversation without removing their headphones.[2] Sony Chairman Akio Morita added these features to the design for fear the technology would be isolating. Though he "thought it would be considered rude for one person to be listening to his music in isolation" (Morita quoted in Patton[3]), people bought their own units rather than share

(emphasis mine)
Hm, maybe communicating across the wall, via IM, with the family/etc. isn't so bad after all...

(the topic of "soundtrack to life" also worth noting, where the above quote came from)

No story about the Sony Walkman is complete...

[ArsenneLupin]

... without this link: Finally after 20 years of court battles, the electronics giant agrees to pay the inventor of the device that made its success.

Re:No story about the Sony Walkman is complete...

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost sounds like a patent troll to me. What's the likelihood that between him receiving the patent in 1977 in Italy of all places and Sony pushing out the first walkman in 1979 that sony actually ever looked at that patent? Unless they found out within the same month about the patent, immediately begin research and development, while at the same time having the factory set up to produce them before they were even designed... it seems unlikely that they "stole" anything. More like coincidence that more than one person thought of putting music on tape.

Re:Minor error

[Kilrah_il]

Thanks for the insightful comment. Everyone here at /. was at loss without this important clarification. Now can we get back to nostalgic memories of childhood days and leave silly pedantics alone for a few minutes?
Jesus, some people never quit.

BTW, "but not as poorly worded" is also a poorly worded sentence, but I'll leave it as an exercise for you to fix on your own. I don't believe in FTFYs.

Tune in, turn on, drop out

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Way back in the early 80's, an old, wise Princeton professor complained about this new trend of students constantly wearing Walkmans. His comment was, "They seem to think that life must have a soundtrack album, like a film."

Another comment was about the trend to wear long black coats, or sectional down jackets: "They either try to look like Raskolnikov or hand grenades."

Nowadays, when I'm out and about, most of the younger folks seem to be "tuned in." To the extent that they cannot hear a car honking at them when they ride their bikes through a red light.

The Walkman was the end of the music industry

[houghi]

I remember making copies for friends and receiving them as well.
Once it was possible, the music industry was not able to sell any more music. Artists went to get real jobs and that is why all music you hear is only done by amateurs.
The best you can compare is what VHS did to the film industry. A few obscure independent movie makers is all that you have left.

And all this because of piracy. Right?

Re:The Walkman was the end of the music industry

[DAldredge]

Trading tapes with a few friends is a little different than trading tapes with a thousands of people.

Home Taping is Killing Music

[bgweber]

Obligatory YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3jkUhG68wY

Re:I'm surprised they held out that long...

[rickb928]

I'm pretty sure my Sharp MDS-702 plays better then most MP3 players. Your DAT deck is, of course, lossless, and similarly unappreciated.

Huh... people still buy Sony products?

[znerk]

Interesting... I would have thought that the massive virus/rootkit/audio CD thing would have killed them by now. Or their yanking the plug on advertised features of their products. Or suing their users for using their products in innovative ways.

Whatever. Sony, you can pretty much do what you want. Anyone who is still a customer of yours evidently enjoys the pain.

Vertical assembly

[Animats]

In manufacturing, the Walkman was notable for its construction. It was designed for automated vertical assembly. In vertical assembly, all components are inserted by simple robots which move straight down to add a part to the base. The base is designed to support and align the parts so that this simple approach to assembly will work. It's fast, cheap, and fully automated.

Apple tried vertical assembly briefly. The Macintosh IIci was designed for vertical assembly. The power supply went in vertically and clicked into the motherboard. No internal cables. Then they went over to outsourced manual assembly with cheap labor. Swatch watches also used vertical assembly. Simpler cell phones are often assembled in this way.

Re:Didn't know they still made it.

[Dogtanian]

You can always put music onto a cassette. Never hear the term "Mix Tape"?

No, no, *please* don't do that! As the campaign from the Walkman's glory days informed us....

Home Taping is Killing Music... and it's Illegal.

I still feel guilty about how copying some of my parents' LPs had caused the end of the music industry by 1988. ;'-(

*cough*