Inventions and Inventors Volume 1 - Online Public Access Catalog

878 / Walkman cassette player
der the direction of Kozo Ohsone, reduced the size and cost of the
machine. In 1981, the Walkman II was introduced. It was 25 percent
smaller than the original version and had 50 percent fewer moving
parts. Its price was considerably lower and continued to fall.
The Walkman opened a huge market for audio equipment that
nobody knew existed. Sony had again confounded the marketing
experts who doubted the appeal of a new consumer electronics
product. It took about two years for Sony’s Japanese competitors,
including Matsushita, Toshiba, and Aiwa, to bring out portable personal
stereos. Such was the popularity of the device that any miniature
cassette player was called a “walkman,” irrespective of the
manufacturer. Sony kept ahead of the competition by constant innovation:
Dolby noise reduction circuits were added in 1982, and a rechargeable
battery feature was introduced in 1985. The machine became
smaller, until it was barely larger than the audio cassette it
played.
Sony developed a whole line of personal stereos. Waterproofed
Walkmans were marketed to customers who wanted musical accompaniment
to water sports. There were special models for tennis
players and joggers. The line grew to encompass about forty different
types of portable cassette players, priced from about $30 to $500
for a high-fidelity model.
In the ten years following the introduction of the Walkman,
Sony sold fifty million units, including twenty-five million in the
United States. Its competitors sold millions more. They were manufactured
all over the Far East and came in a broad range of sizes
and prices, with the cheapest models about $20. Increased competition
in the portable tape player market continually forced down
prices. Sony had to respond to the huge numbers of cheap copies
by redesigning the Walkman to bring down its cost and by automating
its production. The playing mechanism became part of the
integrated circuit that provided amplification, allowing manufacturing
as one unit.
The Walkman did more than revive sales of audio equipment in
the sagging market of the late 1970’s. It stimulated demand for cassette
tapes and helped make the compact cassette the worldwide
standard for magnetic tape. At the time the Walkman was introduced,
the major form of prerecorded sound was the vinyl micro-