30 Years of Sony Walkman
Today marks the 30th birthday of the Sony Walkman - I can't believe it was that long ago when my aunt unboxed her TPS-L2 and I got to listen in for all of 5 minutes. That was pure heaven for my ears at the time (the only thing I can compare that to would be the first time I held a Nintendo Game & Watch, or the first time I played the 'original' Mario Bros on my uncle's Nintendo Famicon against my brother...
Fast forward thirty years - my family somehow were always early adopters of ANYTHING-SONY. I still remember we had 2 Sony Betamax video players, and I remembered my first CD player in highschool was a used Sony Discman D-50, and right after college I spent all my money on Sony's Laserdisc technology, and even had multuiple Minidisc players...
Then I stopped buying Sony. Apple took over (today's quote from ZDNet),
"During the Walkman’s 30-year lifespan, Sony has sold 385 million Walkman machines worldwide. Apple, on the other hand, has sold more than 210 million iPods worldwide in eight years."
Somehow I miss the orange sticker they put onto all their devices - now THAT'S BRAND RECOGNITION (It's a Sony!). Although I still would swear by Sony, these days it's their headphone product that I keep buying more and more of (ask me about how a set of $35 earphones replaced my $400 headset next time)...
Before I digress too much Sony announced the Walkman X to be launched tomorrow... how would it fare against the iPod Touch or the Zune HD? Only time will tell - but even the new Sony Player lacks the orange sticker that I missed so much (think they dropped that design in the early 2000s). At least I can still print my own. :)
