Sony announced it will stop manufacturing and selling cassette Walkmans in Japan - after 30 years. Sony says the final lot was shipped to retailers in April this year, and once the last units are sold, there will be no cassette Walkmans available anymore.
The device was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Akio Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent trans-Pacific plane trips. The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK.
2 comment(s):
Wrong.
It was invented - and later, pirated by Sony - by Andreas Pavel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereobelt
This is the true story. All the rest seems to be PR material.
I don't remember ever hearing the word "Soundabout" here in the US, it was always the Walkman.
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