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.............................. Sony Walkman
Logo and Trademark..............................
Walkman is a popular Sony brand used to market its portable audio and video players. The original Walkman introduced 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, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, and the Stowaway in the UK. 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.Morita hated the name "Walkman" and asked it to be changed, but relented after being told by junior executives that a promotion campaign had already begun using the 'Walkman' name and would be too expensive to change.
However, the first portable personal stereo audio cassette player, called Stereobelt, had been invented earlier by the German-Brazilian Andreas Pavel in
1972, and patented in the U.S. in 1978. After lengthy legal battles, Andreas Pavel was finally recognized by Sony in 2003 as the original inventor of the Walkman.
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 most of their portable audio devices, after the "Discman" name for CD players was dropped in the late 1990s. According to Sony, the plural form is "Walkman Personal Stereos", rather than "Walkmans" or "Walkmen" (presumably to preserve their trademark on "Walkman"). In March 2007, Sony extended the Video Walkman brand by launching its first digital, flash-based video Walkman, the NW-A800.
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 and formed a type of buffer 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.
Initially the MiniDisc was comparable to a miniaturised CD, capable of storing up to 74 minutes of near CD-quality audio on a disc roughly two-thirds the size of a CD. Today MiniDiscs can hold music as well as data files, with the ability to record and reproduce audio in CD-quality (without ATRAC lossy compression).
MiniDiscs come in a plastic caddy protecting the disc's surface from dust and scratches. MiniDisc Walkmans are able to play and record MiniDiscs from digital and analogue sources, such as live audio from their microphone inputs. The first unit on the market, the MZ-1 was relatively large and unpocketable, but following model, MZ-R2, and subsequent MD Walkmans are quite compact, with today's MiniDisc Walkmans not much larger than the discs themselves.
Gradual improvements were made to MiniDisc Walkmans through the years. The addition of MDLP (MiniDisc LongPlay) codec allowed up to 4 times the amount of music to be stored on one MiniDisc, at the sacrifice of some sound quality. NetMD followed. In 2004, Hi-MD was introduced, enabling computer files as well as CD-quality audio to be recorded on the discs for the first time. By 2005, Sony had relaxed the restrictions in its SonicStage software to allow unrestricted digital transfers to and from Hi-MD and the computer.
Sony expanded MiniDisc's possibilities with the introduction of NetMD (NetworkMD). These 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 released in 2002. It was Sony's '10th Anniversary' product, released 10 years after the introduction of the MiniDisc format in 1992. 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. 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 Walkman ever produced. The accompanying 10th anniversary playback-only MiniDisc Walkman, the MZ-E10, was released. It is the lightest MD Walkman ever produced, weighing 55 g (including built-in rechargeable battery) with a thickness of 9.9 mm.
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 256 MB. At the time of its release (2003) it was boasted as the smallest MP3 player on the market. After the runaway success of Apple Computer's hard-drive based 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 the iPod's sales.
The Sony "NW-S700" series is flash-based Network Walkman with built-in Active noise control technology. It blocks surrounding noise with integrating mic in its EX-earphone. This player is one of only a few other DAPs that have a noise cancellation feature at this size. The earphone has a proprietary design specifically made for this player, thus making it impossible to plug-in to other DAPs, even the ones that come from Sony. This Walkman has a small OLED screen capable displaying album art and some text information about the song and the player features. The S700 comes in 1 GB(NW-S703), 2 GB(NW-S705), and 4 GB(NW-S706) capacities; some countries sell the 2 GB and 1 GB models only. Selected models are also equipped with a Stereo FM Tuner.
The Sony NW-A800 series is a video-enabled Network Walkman player It is available in 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB capacities. The interface is similar to that of a mobile phone. The screen is a 2.0 inch QVGA (240x320) colour LCD and can be used either horizontally or vertically. The Lithium-ion rechargeable battery can last up to 30 hours for music and 8 hours for video.
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 to 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 18, 2006, saw the introduction of two more Walkman phones, a second clamshell model, W710, and the first slider, W850i.
In February the W880 was announced and released. It features a design which is only 9.4 mm thick and a full metal face plate. Being one of the smallest phones on the market, it has proved very popular with the market.
The popularity of Walkman-branded telephones may be an indication that the portable audio and mobile telephone markets are beginning to converge. Walkman phones are equipped with applications such as Track ID™, PlayNow™ and M-BUZZ™ and as of June 2007 Sony Ericsson claims to have sold over 26.5 million Walkman phones since the launch in September 2005. Sony Ericsson is seen to have had the most success with converging music and mobile phones, largely attributed to the Walkman heritage and expertise from Sony.
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