Sony Walkman - Report Example

Sony Walkman Name Course Tutor Date Sony Walkman The launch of Walkman by Sony Company in 1979 transformed the music sector (Du Gay, Hall et al. 1997). It transformed the manner in which individuals paid attention to music and was regarded as an advantage for the lovers of the music. Appreciated by individuals of all ages, Walkman turned out to be more popular in the globe that the brand name became identical with every personal compact cassette player. Nevertheless, with company stating that it would stop its production in 2010, the success of the famed Walkman appeared to be coming to an end. The name "Walkman" is trademark of Sony that has been used on a portable entertainment device produced by the corporation (Day, 2000). The title "Walkman" was derived from the precursor, the Pressman tape recorder. The first model of walkman was actually manufactured by changing the speaker and recording circuit from the Pressman (also a product of Sony Corporation) with a tape player amplifier (Gershon, 2000, p.93). According to Hormby (2006), the Walkman became first gadget that enabled music lovers to tape songs out of the radio. Provided that an individual would tape it, he or she could listen to music from Sony Walkman anywhere. It turned to be considered as the first special tape player that was small and convenience to be carried. This improvement, as a result, stirred the mix tape, that "took the place of flowers" as "a means of amazing the object of a person’s desire” (Erlmann, 2004). The introduction of Sony Walkman TPS-L2 in 1979 ensured that two individuals listened to music at the same time using a second earphone jack. Sony continues using the brand name "Walkman" for majority of their portable devices of audio nature, following the dropping of “Discman" name meant for CD players in the 1990s. The initial Walkman incorporated a transformation in music listening culture by enabling individuals to bring music with them and listen to it via headphones of light weight. All the device required was just a name. At first Sony Walkman was launched as "Sound-About" in the U.S. and "Stowaway" in the UK. However, establishing fresh, uncopyrighted brands in each country it was promoted in proved expensive; Sony ultimately settled on "Walkman" like which played on a mono cassette recorder, Sony Pressman, that the original Walkman prototype was anchored in (Day, 2000). Meaghan (2009) argues that when it was first launched in Japan, it became a very big hit: whilst Sony expected it would merely sell roughly 5,000 units in one month, they sold an upwards of 50,000 units in their first two months. When creation of Sony strike the marketplace, it brought the idea of 'personal electronics', glimmering technological developments which had eventually led to the influx of more portable and sophisticated music players people currently see. This evolution demonstrates technological determinism is still in the sector, shaping up how these brands grow in relation to ever-changing demands in the society. According to Meaghan (2009), the Walkman was not a massive innovation in the field of engineering: in fact magnetic cassette technology was there since 1963, at the time Philips, Netherlands-based Electronics Company initially manufactured it for application by journalists and secretaries. Sony by that point, had turned into specialists in developing and supplying well-manufactured, miniaturized electronics into the market as early as 1955, when they first brought in transistor radio which made a run of fairly thriving portable cassette recorders. But the release of music tapes that were pre-recorded in the 1960s created a complete new market (Rohter, 2005). Individuals still sometimes to pay attention to vinyl records as opposed to cassettes at their homes, but the size of compact tapes enabled them to be more favorable to mobility and car stereos compared to 8-tracks or vinyl (Meaghan, 2009). 1980s could be considered as the Walkman era due to domination of music industry by the arrival of Sony Walkman. The status of Sony's gadget — and those from other companies such as Panasonic, Aiwa and Toshiba which followed in Sony's dominance — assisted this Sony brand cassette tape outperform vinyl records since 1983. Haire (2009) claimed that in the course of furious competition, mostly from Panasonic (the MiJockey), Toshiba (the Walky) and Aiwa (the CassetteBoy) by the late “80”s, Sony increased their game once more by manufacturing the playback-only WM-DD9, introduced in 1989 at time when Sony was celebrating 10th anniversary of Walkman which turned out to be the holy grail for a market for a set of cassette Walkman customers (Du Gay, Hall et al. 1997). It is was only Walkman of auto-reverse in history to apply a two-motor, disc drive system similar to high-end home cassette decks and quartz-locked to make sure correct tape speed for both. Power usage was lessened by involving just either one gumstick-type rechargeable or one AA battery having possible AC adaptor input. 1986 witnessed the word "Walkman" introduced into Oxford English Dictionary (Meaghan, 2009). Its introduction corresponded with the beginning of aerobics craze and millions of people employed the Walkman to enable their exercises a lot more entertaining. Between 1987 and 1997 that marked the peak of the Walkman's fame, the number of individuals who stated that they walked for work rose by 30 percent. Niall (2010) maintains that Sony continued enhancing various themes on its devices, adding improvement such as AM/FM receivers, auto-reverse and bass boost on later prototypes. Sony went ahead to make even a solar-powered Walkman, devices with two cassette drives and even water-resistant Sport Walkmans. With the release of compact discs (CD) in 1982, the format started to go change to the 8-track itself. Sony transformed the music sector in the 1980s with the Walkman number of tape recorders. With existence of innovative and well-developed products like Walkman, Sony rapidly grew in wealth and size in the subsequent decades. The Sony Walkman did not just become a part of human culture, but a very marketable brand (Du Gay, Hall et al. 1997). It made a unique culture in its own right attracting customers across the globe. Revolving around Walkman a unique set of definitions, practices and meaning have been developed. The particular word -WALK – MAN juggles up an idea or an image- the concept- of the gadget (Rohter, 2005). Therefore, the Walkman is cultural since human have made it up as a significant object. People can think, talk concerning and imagine Sony walkman (Erlmann, 2004). It is also became cultural since it relates with a unique set of social practices such as paying attention to music whilst travelling on a train which is specific to a way of life or human culture. Erlmann (2004) asserts that it went cultural since it was connected with particular categories of population; young people, for instance, music fans among others. It was also identified with particular places such as the open air, city and around a museum because it was given or attained a social status. The Sony and Walkman Technological determinism gave the society a new perception on remaining active, which certainly assisted the brand sell. The Sony Walkman' ultimately became a true symbol of its impacts on the sector (Erlmann, 2004). The Sony Walkman image that is, sleek, high tech, functional design, and miniaturized has turn into a sort of symbol which represents or signifies a uniquely late- modern, technological way of life or culture (Meaghan, 2000). Sony started to modify the brand, targeting different kinds of Walkman at various customer markets bringing together receptive device and illustrative communication with methods of market segmentation to facilitate the desire to have the appropriate Walkman that works with the daily life of its user. Sony Company was trying simultaneously to regulate the device and advertisements. However, currently one is more likely to get individuals paying attention to music on iPod from Apple Corporation rather than a Sony gadget (Haire, 2009). However, cassettes, just like any form of technology, were not going to stay forever. Surprisingly, in 2010, Sony only ceased manufacturing cassette Walkmans in Japan even though the company maintains to produce and sell in America and Europe that demonstrate the 'retro', longing feel of the brand enables it to produce and sell in a contemporary market (Niall, 2010). Media professionals draw attention to those other portable music gadgets like the iPod that is always evolving and especially feature strong have resulted to the collapse of Sony Walkman. Day (2000) claimed that the history and research on portable music players would advocate that the iPod could not have come to existence without original push by Sony to take music mobility to the people. It is at this point that the supposition of technological determinism is to some extent applicable. This supposition claims that continuous product development facilitates rise to new kinds of media gadgets and applications for these gadgets. In the 90s, the Sony cassette-oriented Walkman was in general overtaken by the upcoming digital technologies such as CD, MiniDis and DAT. After 2000, Sony Walkman products were moving towards technological extinction since the cassette design was slowly phased out (Casey, 2010). The development of technology witnessed Sony's rivals taking their ideas and adding latest features to their own brand to put it in their own favor (Niall, 2010). It was eventually Sony who brought the portable music players’ invention to a place it is at the present. In 2010, Sony stated its decision to discontinue manufacture of the Sony Walkman. The brand, which transformed the lives and culture of music fans in the 1980s and taken over the music player industry to almost three decades but could not maintain with the digital era as customer preferences changed toward the more compacted and technologically greater music players. References Casey, C. (2010). Sony Kills the Cassette Walkman on the iPods birthday. Retrieved 22nd July 2013 from http://gizmodo.com/5671670/sony-kills-the-cassette-walkman-on-the-ipods-birthday Day, T. (2000). A Century of Recorded Music. New haven; Yale University Press. Du Gay, P. Hall, S. et al. (1997). Doing Cultural Studies, The story of the Sony Walkman. London. SAGE Publications in association with The Open University. Erlmann, V. (2004). Hearing Cultures. Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity, New York: Berg Publishers. Gershon, R. (2000). The Transnational Media Corporation: Environmental scanning and strategy Formulation. Journal of Media Economics, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 81-101. Hormby, T. (2006). "The Story Behind the Sony Walkman". Low End Mac. Retrieved 22nd July 2013 from http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/sony-walkman-origin.html Meaghan, H. (2000). The Brief History of Walkman, Retrieved 22nd July 2013 from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907884,00.html Haire, M. 2009. "A Brief History of The Walkman". Time. Retrieved 2010-12-24. From http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907884,00.html Niall, F. (2010). Sony Walkman iconic portable cassette player stopped 30years. Retrieved 22nd July 2013 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1323619/Death-Sony- Walkman-Iconic-portable-cassette-player-stopped-30-years.html#ixzz2Zh24snCt Rohter, L. (2005). "Portable stereo's creator got his due, eventually". International Herald Tribune. Read More

Sony by that point, had turned into specialists in developing and supplying well-manufactured, miniaturized electronics into the market as early as 1955, when they first brought in transistor radio which made a run of fairly thriving portable cassette recorders. But the release of music tapes that were pre-recorded in the 1960s created a complete new market (Rohter, 2005). Individuals still sometimes to pay attention to vinyl records as opposed to cassettes at their homes, but the size of compact tapes enabled them to be more favorable to mobility and car stereos compared to 8-tracks or vinyl (Meaghan, 2009).

1980s could be considered as the Walkman era due to domination of music industry by the arrival of Sony Walkman. The status of Sony's gadget — and those from other companies such as Panasonic, Aiwa and Toshiba which followed in Sony's dominance — assisted this Sony brand cassette tape outperform vinyl records since 1983. Haire (2009) claimed that in the course of furious competition, mostly from Panasonic (the MiJockey), Toshiba (the Walky) and Aiwa (the CassetteBoy) by the late “80”s, Sony increased their game once more by manufacturing the playback-only WM-DD9, introduced in 1989 at time when Sony was celebrating 10th anniversary of Walkman which turned out to be the holy grail for a market for a set of cassette Walkman customers (Du Gay, Hall et al. 1997). It is was only Walkman of auto-reverse in history to apply a two-motor, disc drive system similar to high-end home cassette decks and quartz-locked to make sure correct tape speed for both.

Power usage was lessened by involving just either one gumstick-type rechargeable or one AA battery having possible AC adaptor input. 1986 witnessed the word "Walkman" introduced into Oxford English Dictionary (Meaghan, 2009). Its introduction corresponded with the beginning of aerobics craze and millions of people employed the Walkman to enable their exercises a lot more entertaining. Between 1987 and 1997 that marked the peak of the Walkman's fame, the number of individuals who stated that they walked for work rose by 30 percent.

Niall (2010) maintains that Sony continued enhancing various themes on its devices, adding improvement such as AM/FM receivers, auto-reverse and bass boost on later prototypes. Sony went ahead to make even a solar-powered Walkman, devices with two cassette drives and even water-resistant Sport Walkmans. With the release of compact discs (CD) in 1982, the format started to go change to the 8-track itself. Sony transformed the music sector in the 1980s with the Walkman number of tape recorders.

With existence of innovative and well-developed products like Walkman, Sony rapidly grew in wealth and size in the subsequent decades. The Sony Walkman did not just become a part of human culture, but a very marketable brand (Du Gay, Hall et al. 1997). It made a unique culture in its own right attracting customers across the globe. Revolving around Walkman a unique set of definitions, practices and meaning have been developed. The particular word -WALK – MAN juggles up an idea or an image- the concept- of the gadget (Rohter, 2005).

Therefore, the Walkman is cultural since human have made it up as a significant object. People can think, talk concerning and imagine Sony walkman (Erlmann, 2004). It is also became cultural since it relates with a unique set of social practices such as paying attention to music whilst travelling on a train which is specific to a way of life or human culture. Erlmann (2004) asserts that it went cultural since it was connected with particular categories of population; young people, for instance, music fans among others.

It was also identified with particular places such as the open air, city and around a museum because it was given or attained a social status. The Sony and Walkman Technological determinism gave the society a new perception on remaining active, which certainly assisted the brand sell. The Sony Walkman' ultimately became a true symbol of its impacts on the sector (Erlmann, 2004).

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