Walkman

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Sony Walkman Official Logo (2000 - current)

Various products of the Walkman line

The Walkman is a popular Sony brand used by the company to market its portable audio players, and is synonymously used to refer to the original Walkman portable personal stereo player and as a generic term for similar devices from other manufacturers. The original Walkman brought about a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry their own choice of music with them.

The original Walkman was released in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan and Soundabout abroad. The device was created by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips^[1]. Morita hated the Walkman name so much that he asked it to be changed. But he was told by junior executives that a promotion campaign had already begun using the 'Walkman' name and it would be too expensive to change it now. And so Morita relented.

Until recently, Nobutoshi Kihara was also credited with the invention of the personal stereo. However, Sony has recently acknowledged the claims of Andreas Pavel, who created and patented a similar device, the stereobelt, in 1977. After 30 years of highly financed court battles against Pavel, Sony came to an out-of-court settlement in 2003.

However the original patent for a personal stereo was registered by Srirekam Jayram Purushotam on behalf of his brother Balram Shotam (Baal). The patent was filed in the U.K in 1974. Baal had a prototype built in 1972 while he was in the record industry as President of Baal Records distributing ABC and AVCO (Stylistics) records. The patent no. in the UK is #2064326. This was the first wearable electronic entertainment device ever patented and a copy of the patent was sent to Akio Moriata of Sony including copies to Matushita in Japan in 1976. The patent was for a transportable cassette player which did not allow recording and was solely connected to headphones.

The names "Walkman", "Pressman", "Watchman", "Scoopman", "Discman", and "Talkman" are trademarks of Sony, and have been applied to a wide range of portable entertainment devices manufactured by the company. Sony continues to use the "Walkman" brand name for all of these kinds of portable audio devices as well, after the "Discman" name for CD players was dropped in the late 1990s. The plural form is usually "Walkmans" rather than "Walkmen".

1 Cassette-based Walkman
2 CD Walkman (Discman)
3 MiniDisc Walkman
4 Network Walkman
5 The Latest Walkman
6 Walkman Phones from Sony Ericsson
7 References in Popular Culture
8 See also
9 External links
- 9.1 Reviews
- 9.2 Other links

[edit] Cassette-based Walkman

Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)

The original blue-and-silver Walkman model TPS-L2 went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979. In the UK, it was with stereo playback and two mini headphone jacks, permitting two people to listen at the same time (though it came with only one pair of MDR-1 headphones). Where the Pressman had the recording button, the Walkman had a "hotline" button which activated a small built-in microphone (the Pressman), partially overriding the sound from the cassette, and allowing one user to talk to the other over the music. The dual jacks and "hotline" button were phased out in the follow-up Walkman II model.

Walkman WM-D6C Pro (1995)

Some devices were also capable of recording. The highest quality Sony Walkman recording cassette deck was the Walkman Professional WM-D6C, which was comparable in audio quality with many of the best non-portable cassette decks. Unusually for a portable device, the Walkman Professional had bright LED recording level meters and manual control of recording levels. It was equipped with quartz direct drive capstan, and amorphous head. Powered by local AC mains or by 4 AA batteries (compared with 2 for most Walkman models), it was widely used by journalists and developed a following among hi-fi enthusiasts; unusually for a consumer-electronics product, it was in production, unchanged, for almost 20 years. One of Henry Rollins' early spoken word CDs was recorded with a Walkman Pro.

Amid fierce competition, primarily from Toshiba (the Walky), Aiwa (the CassetteBoy) and Panasonic, by the late 80's, Sony upped the ante once again by creating the playback-only WM-DD9, launched in 1989 during the 10th anniversary of the Walkman (five years after the WM-D6C) and became the holy grail for a niche group of cassette Walkman collectors. It is the only auto-reverse Walkman in history to use a two motor, quartz locked, disc drive system similar to high-end home cassette decks to ensure accurate tape speed for both sides of playback (only one motor operates at a time depending on the side of the tape being played). Power consumption was improved by requiring only either one AA battery or one gumstick-type rechargeable, with optional AC adaptor input. It is also equipped with a tight gap amorphous tape head capable of reproducing the full 20-20,000 Hz frequency range, a gold plated headphone jack, and a 2 mm thick aluminum body. Sony made this model with only sound quality in mind, therefore it contains no gimmick features such as in-line remote control, music search, or LCD readout. Its only features are Dolby B/C noise reduction decoding, Mega Bass/DBB bass boost, tape type select, and two auto reverse modes.

Walkman WM-EX170 (1998)

By the late 1990s, the cassette-based Walkman was generally passed over in favor of the emerging digital technologies of CD, DAT and MiniDisc. After 2000, cassette-based Walkman products (and their clones) were approaching technological obsolescence as the cassette format was gradually phased out. However, Sony still continues to make cassette-based Walkmans today.

Every five years since the Walkman was born in 1979 until 1999, Sony would celebrate by coming out with an anniversary cassette model on July 1st with unprecedented breakthroughs in technology and features. Each anniversary model carries a different theme while retaining some characteristics of previous anniversary models: WM-701S (user friendliness theme with remote control and slim sterling silver plated body — 1989), WM-EX1HG (efficiency theme with long battery life and pop-up eject — 1994), WM-WE01 (wireless theme with cordless remote control and cordless earphones — 1999). However, cassette Walkman innovation would come to an end as during its 25th Anniversary, Sony chose to not introduce another limited run cassette model but instead, brought out the hard disk based NW-HD1 in 2004 to officially augur the death of the compact cassette. (Sony did release two anniversary models in 2003, but they were MiniDisc players - see below.) The last play-only cassette Walkman to be introduced (in North America, at least) was the WM-FX290, first sold in 2002, which also featured digital tuning, AM, FM, TV and weather band radio, operating on a single AA battery. In Canada, at least (where, like all portable radios distributed in that country, the WM-FX290 lacked access to TV and weather bands) this device appears to have ceased production as of May, 2006. In August 2006, Sony Canada began selling cassette Walkmans again, but this time they were only offering a basic model, the WM-FX197.

In common speech, the term "Walkman" is frequently used for any such device. This is often cited as an example of how a trademark can become so popular that it evolves into a generic term and loses much of its original value, no longer effectively distinguishing the branded product from similar ones.

[edit] CD Walkman (Discman)

The first CD based Walkman was initially launched in 1984 — the D-50 (D-5 in some markets). It was officially called the 'Discman', and this name has since been used informally to refer to such players. In recent years, Sony has dropped the Discman name and markets all its personal stereos under the Walkman brand.

Later Discman models featured ESP (Electronic Skip Protection), which pre-read the music from the CD into on-board memory to prevent the CD skipping when the player was moved. The technology was since renamed 'G-Protection' and features a larger memory area, providing additional protection against skipping.

For years, the Discman and MD Walkman were successes in the marketplace. However, newer technologies, such as flash memory and hard drive-based digital audio players have caused the CD- and MD-based Walkman to lose popularity.

Sony still makes CD Walkmans — the newer models are capable of playing ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and MP3 CDs, and have become progressively thinner and more compact with each revision.

[edit] MiniDisc Walkman

MD Walkman

Initially the MiniDisc was comparable to a miniaturised CD, capable of storing up to 74 minutes of CD-quality audio on a disc roughly two-thirds the size of a CD. MiniDiscs also came in a plastic caddy, which increased their lifespan over CDs. The MiniDisc Walkman was able to both play and record MiniDiscs from digital sources and microphones. The units were initially large, but soon reduced in size as the technology improved.

Gradual improvements were made to MiniDisc player-recorders, including the addition of MDLP (short for MiniDisc LongPlay), which used Sony's ATRAC technology to allow up to 4 times the amount of music to be stored on one MiniDisc, at the sacrifice of some sound quality.

The only real innovation with the MiniDisc line came when the NetMD (short for NetworkMD) recorders were introduced. This allowed the use of a PC to convert music from CDs or MP3s into ATRAC3 format, and use a USB cable to transfer the music to the MiniDisc at a much faster rate than was possible when using a line-in cable.

The MZ-N10 was Sony's '10th Anniversary' product, released 10 years after the initial introduction of the MiniDisc format. The case was made from a magnesium alloy, and the unit featured a built-in lithium-ion battery which provided 24 hours of battery life. It marked the first time a Walkman product had come with a lithium battery. The MZ-N10 allowed music to be transferred from a PC at up to 64 times actual playback speed, not including the time required for audio re-encoding. It was also the first MD Walkman to incorporate the ATRAC DSP TYPE S codec, and is today (2006) the lightest recording MD portable player ever produced. The other 10th anniversary Minidisc device was the playback-only MZ-E10, whose 9 mm thickness and 50g weight made it the lightest MD walkman ever produced.

Since the NetMD, Sony has introduced the HiMD format. These recorders use MiniDiscs with a higher data density, which allows up to 1 GB to be stored. Hi-MDs could also be used for data storage, and with the latest models of recorder, direct playback of MP3s without the need for conversion to ATRAC3plus. Some of the latest models include digital cameras and colour screens, to show the cover art of the currently playing song (and allow the user to choose their next song by looking at the cover art of the album) and take or store digital photos on MiniDiscs, all in one device.

[edit] Network Walkman

Sony NW-HD5

Initially the 'Network' Walkman was a series of digital music players that used flash memory to hold their data. The players used Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, and were available in a number of capacities, up to 1 GB. The first of these walkmans was the NW MS70D which had a capacity of 256MB. At the time of its release (2003) it was boasted as the smallest MP3 player on the market. After the runaway success of the hard-drive based Apple iPod, Sony lost much of the portable digital audio market to the iPod and similar devices from other companies.

Sony's first attempt at equalling the iPod's success was the NW-HD1, which was smaller and was advertised as having better sound quality than the iPod at the time. However, the unit would only play Sony's proprietary format, ATRAC3 — whereas other players on the market would play the much more widely used MP3 format without having to be converted to ATRAC3. The PC conversion software, SonicStage, was also buggy, and the player's control system was not as user-friendly as it could have been. The NW-HD1 did not sell as well as Sony had hoped. Its successors, the NW-HD3 and NW-HD5 have also failed to make a major dent in iPod's sales.

[edit] NW-MS70D

The NW-MS70D was released towards the end of 2003 as Sony's first hit at the MP3 player industry. They had unfortunately released this at the same time as Apple released the iPod. NW-MS70D had 256MB of inbuilt flash memory. It could also be expanded by its Memory Stick Duo port. But at the time, the Memory Stick Pro Duo had not been released yet. So therefore the NW-MS70D could only yield 384MB at any one time. The other downside to it was that it was incredibly expensive, costing as much as a 15GB iPod. It also used a very buggy software, Sonicstage, and only played Atrac3, Atrac3plus and WAV files. However, it was the smallest digital audio player at that time. It was also solidly built with a magnesium alloy shell. It boasted a 44 hour battery life. Despite a heavy marketing campaign, its sales were limited.

[edit] NW-MS90D

The replacement model, the NW-MS90D was another alternative to its older brother. But still used the same software, yielded a maximum of 640MB at anyone time, and was extremely expensive. The most eminent change was the 512MB inbuilt memory and its new black shell. But due to its price and limited capacity, it was still rejected by the general public.

[edit] NW-HD3

The NW-HD3 in black

The successor to the hard disk-based NW-HD1, the NW-HD3 was a very similar design — however, despite the fact that the unit would play MP3s natively, the PC software was still buggy, and the unit was therefore equally poorly received.

[edit] NW-HD5

The NW-HD5 in red

Sony's next model, the NW-HD5, was an updated design from the HD1 / HD3, and boasted a simpler control system, a user-removable lithium-ion battery, better file format compatibility, a unique "Follow Turn Display" that would automatically align itself based on how the player was held on startup, and updated software. A main feature was its advertised running time of 40 hours, when using low-quality format settings, i.e. 48 kbit/s ATRAC3 files, and no player-based audio enhancements Playback of 128 kbit/s mp3s was rated at 30 hours. The player was available in black, silver and red and was not sold in the Canadian market.

In January of 2006, the NW-HD5 became unavailable as a normal purchase from retail electronics stores and was relegated to online auction sites and used-electronics warehouses as a consumer item. Eventually the whole of the Network Walkman line would be discontinued for Sony's new solution.

A number of new flash memory based players were recently made available, including the Walkman Core, The Walkman Circa, and the Walkman Bean. All of these lines have OLED screens as well as long battery lives (70 hours on a standard AAA battery for the Circa).

[edit] The Latest Walkman

Sony NW-A1000 6GB MP3 Player

The latest Walkman, a digital music player is available in 6 (NW-A1000), 8 (NW-A1200) and 20 gigabyte (NW-A3000) versions and features a screen using the latest organic EL technology, and also boasts a 20-hour and 35-hour battery life respectively. The player supports ATRAC3, WMA, MP3 and AAC.

There are a number of features to select music according to a variety of criteria. It features a new "Artist link" function, which prompts the Walkman to search, find and display similar artists in that genre. It also features two new shuffle modes. By selecting "My Favourite Shuffle", the device automatically selects the most listened to 100 songs and plays them at random. The "Time Machine Shuffle" function randomly selects a year and plays all of the songs from that particular year currently held on the device. A recent firmware update (V3.00) added the "Artist Link Shuffle" fuction to the list of Intelligent Shuffle modes, along with a clock and calendar, regarded as perhaps two of the most widely sought after functions on Sony's popular new addition to the Walkman family. The Sony Walkman has been updated to a 20GB NM2000 device, released on August 14th, 2006^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Walkman Phones from Sony Ericsson

After losing a large portion of the market to other companies, Sony's latest attempt to revive the Walkman brand involves a series of music-centred mobile phones marketed under the Sony Ericsson brand.

Contrary from most Walkman line, Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones do not support, and hence cannot play, Sony's proprietary audio format, ATRAC (with all of its variants). Walkman phones do support AAC as well as MP3.

The W800 and W550/W600 have numerous audio capabilities including playlists, audio equalisation, support for the M4A audio file format, and the ability to operate only as music player, with the telephony electronics switched off. It also includes standard mobile phone features, such as a 2 megapixel auto-focus camera. The W550/W600 will have 256 MB of internal memory, while the W800 includes a 512 MB Memory Stick.

The W810 is an EDGE-enabled Quad band telephone launched in response to demand for a black coloured Walkman Phone. Other than minor changes in the software and hardware, most of the features are similar to those of the W800.

Sony Ericsson also launched the W900 (considered the successor of S700) which in addition to the audio and camera capabilities of W800, also features 3G video calling and streaming, better video recording (30 frames a second), a larger display, and 470 MB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 2 GB. Music can be imported from a variety of sources, either via the wireless service provider or from a personal computer.

Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint, claiming to have sold over three million Walkman phones, introduced their sixth Walkman branded phone, the W950, at the 3GSM Congress in 2006. The W950i is a slim device with 4 GB internal flash memory, including a touch screen for navigation through music genres, playlists, individual songs or music albums. It is also the first Symbian OS-based Walkman phone to be introduced.

In 2006, Sony Ericsson announced yet another Walkman phone, the W300. It is the first Walkman phone in the series in a "flip phone" form factor. The W300 is also the first Walkman Phone to support Memory Stick Micro and features a VGA camera. They also launched their 8th Walkman telephone, the W700. It is essentially a stripped-down version of the W800 with a different case colour, and includes a 256 MB Memory Stick. The other major change is the absence of Auto-focus in the onboard camera.

May 18th, 2006 saw the introduction of two more Walkman phones, a second clamshell model, W710, and the first slider, W850i.

The tremendous sales volume of Walkman-branded telephones may be indicators that the portable audio and mobile telephone markets are beginning to converge.

[edit] References in Popular Culture

Please expand this article.
Further information might be found in a section of the talk page or at Requests for expansion.

The band SSQ references the portable audio player in their song "Walkman On."
In the 2005 movie Æon Flux the Sony NW-MS70D plays a role as it is found containing voice recordings.
In Ghostbusters II, the Statue of Liberty starts to walk after the Ghostbusters hook her up to an amplified Sony Walkman.
The Smiths song Bigmouth Strikes Again humorously mentions Joan of Arc having a Walkman, and it melting in the flames as she is executed. In recent years singer Morrisey has changed the line to discman and, more recently, to ipod during live performances.
In the 1985 film Back to the Future Marty McFly uses a walkman to torture his father by playing Van Halen at excessive volume.
In the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, at the end of every major storyline he is featured in, Joseph Joestar's last panel he appears in always shows him with a walkman every time listening to The Beatles.