Walkman
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Deja los petas edu
Walkman is a popular Sony brand used 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 introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry their own choice of music with them. In March 2007, Sony extended the Video Walkman brand by launching its first digital, flash-based video Walkman, the NW-A800. [1]
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. [2] 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.[2]
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. The plural form is usually "Walkmans" rather than "Walkmen".
History and design
Cassette-based Walkman
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.
Some devices were also capable of recording. The highest quality Sony Walkman recording cassette deck was the Walkman Professional WM-D6C. It was introduced in 1984, and was comparable in audio quality with many of the best non-portable cassette decks. Unusual 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; unusual 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.
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 spite of the decline of the cassette-based Walkmans, logically-operated deluxe models (e.g. WM-GX788, WM-FX700, etc.) are still sold in some countries, especially in South Korea and Japan. These models still support a so-called gumstick-type rechargeable battery, offer relatively better sound quality than cheaper models do, and have an automatic tape position selector.
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. (see Genericized trademark).
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 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.
MiniDisc Walkman
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. 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 and analogue sources, including live audio from microphones. The first unit on the market, the MZ-1 was relatively large and unpocketable, but following model, MZ-R2, and subsequent MD Walkmans were quite pocketable.
Gradual improvements were made to MiniDisc player-recorders. 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
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 in at 55g (including built-in rechargeable battery) with 9.9mm thickness.
Hi-MD
In 2004, Sony introduced the Hi-MD format. Hi-MD Walkmans use 1GB Hi-MD discs in the same form-factor as regular MiniDiscs, and allow 1GB of files and/or audio to be stored per disc. They also accept regular MiniDiscs, which can be initialized in Hi-MD mode for 305MB capacity per disc (with the added ability to store audio and data, like Hi-MD discs).
Unlike NetMD, Hi-MD Walkmans allow two-way digital transfers to and from PCs virtually unrestricted. Hi-MD also allows the option to record and transfer audio in lossless linear PCM on standard MiniDiscs and Hi-MD discs. This offers sound quality equal to CD (as opposed to lossy ATRAC codecs used on standard MiniDisc/ NetMD).
Hi-MD Walkmans introduced from 2005 onwards allow direct playback of MP3s without the need to transcode the MP3s to ATRAC format. However, SonicStage is required for transfer and encryption onto the disc itself. Playable audio cannot be transferred to the devices without SonicStage.
Network Walkman
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 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.
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.
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 any one 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.
NW-HD3
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.
NW-HD5
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 (although the player does include these). 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.
Unfortunately, the NW-HD5 was shipped with a cosmetic design flaw which meant that the buttons developed small visible cracks under their plastic coating. Although this did not affect functionality, many customers complained. Sony United Kingdom Limited allowed owners to send the units back to be re-fitted with slightly more raised, un-cracking buttons. Perhaps because of this problem, the NW-HD5 was on the market for a very short time before being pulled in preparation for the next model.
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).
HDD NW-A Series Walkman
The NW-A series Walkman is a digital music player available in 6 (NW-A1000), 8 (NW-A1200) and 20 gigabyte (NW-A3000) versions and features an EL-technology screen. Battery life can reach 20 and 35 hours respectively. The player supports ATRAC3 and from firmware version 3.00 it also supports AAC. [3]
The primary way of putting music on this device is to use Sony software: SonicStage and Connect Player (now withdrawn due to too many problems). The software only works on Microsoft Windows and other common platforms such as MacOS and linux are not supported. SonicStage has received a lot of criticism. It is possible to move tracks from the music player to the PC hard drive, and thereby from one music player to another, if each device/computer is "authorized" to the user's account with the Connect Store for their country. Users from countries that do not have the Connect Store service are currently limited to one device/computer.
There are a number of features to select music according to a variety of criteria. The "Artist link" function prompts the Walkman to search, find and display similar artists in that genre. There are 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" function to the list of Intelligent Shuffle modes, along with a clock and calendar.
The Latest Walkman
The Sony NW-A800 series is a video-enabled Network Walkman player[1]. It is available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB 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.
![[2]](http://www.walkmanvideomp3.com/includes/img/walkmanvideo_03.jpg){kind=link}
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.
In February the W880 was announced and released. It features a design which is only 9.4mm 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 tremendous sales volume of Walkman-branded telephones may be indicators that the portable audio and mobile telephone markets are beginning to converge. 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.
Patent Controversy
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.
References in Popular Culture
- 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.
- Indie Rock band The Walkmen obtained their name from the Sony Walkman.
- 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.
- In the 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royale, the Sony NW-HD5 makes a short appearance - it can be seen resting next to Dryden's gun in the beginning of the movie which takes place in Prague. All of cell phones are Sony Ericsson.
- In the anime FLCL, Kamon refers to Canti as a "TV Walkman" where Ninamori answers "Sony brand?"
See also
References
- ^ Miller, Paul (2007-02-16). "Sony's NW-A800 Series Outed". Engadget. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Hormby, Thomas (2006-09-15). "The Story Behind the Sony Walkman". Low End Mac. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/Downloads/downloads.asp?l=en&c=WM&sc=NWH&f=FRM_NW_A3000
External links
Reviews:
Other links:
- The story behind the Sony Walkman - History of the Original Walkman
- Super walkland - An online game promoting the new line of walkmans
- The latest Walkman
- Sony Walkman Personal Stereo Turns 20 Years Old
- Sony History
- Sony's Walkman site
- Disassembled Sony NW-E403 Network Walkman
- Network Walkman Display Screen Online Editor — Create custom screen savers for NW-E400/E500/A600 series Walkmans.
- U.S. patent 4,412,106 – "High fidelity stereophonic reproduction system"
- Sony Ericsson Walkman phones website
- Walkman Central — Reference site containing details and pictures of various Walkman models.
Subscript text