Sony limps into Walkman’s 30th anniversary

TOKYO It was as big as a paperback book and weighed 14 ounces. It wasn't cheap, especially for those days, costing $340.

But people snatched it up.

When the Sony Walkman went on sale 30 years ago, it was shown off by a skateboarder -- illustrating how the portable cassette-tape player delivered music on-the-go. That was a totally innovative idea back in 1979.

Today, Sony Corp. is struggling to reinvent itself and win back its reputation as a pioneer of razzle-dazzle gadgetry once exemplified in the Walkman, which on Wednesday had its 30th anniversary marked with a special display at Sony's corporate archives.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company lost $1.02 billion in the fiscal year that ended March -- its first annual loss in 14 years -- and it is expecting more red ink this year.

The manufacturer, which also makes Vaio personal computers and Cyber-shot cameras, hasn't had a decisive hit like the Walkman for years, and it has taken a battering in the portable music player market to Apple Inc.'s iPod.

Sony has sold 385 million Walkman machines worldwide in 30 years as it evolved from playing cassettes to compact discs to minidiscs and finally digital files. Apple has sold more than 210 million iPod machines worldwide in eight years.

There is even some speculation in the Japanese media that Sony should drop the Walkman brand -- a name associated with Sony's rise from its humble beginnings in 1946 with just 20 employees to one of the first Japanese companies to successfully go global.

"The Walkman's gap with the iPod has grown so definitive, it would be extremely difficult for Sony to catch up, even if it were to start from scratch to try to boost market share," said Kazuharu Miura, analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo.

Initially in the late 1970s, names such as "soundabout" and "stowaway" were tried for international markets before Sony settled on Walkman. The original logo had little feet on the A's in "Walkman."

Many, even within Sony, were skeptical of the idea because earphones back then were associated with unfashionable, hard-of-hearing old people.

The archival exhibit shows other Sony products that have been discontinued or lost out to competition over the years -- the Betamax video cassette recorder, the Trinitron TV, the Aibo dog-shaped robotic pet.

The Walkman exhibit shows models that are still on sale, some about the size of a lighter that play digital music files.

-- The Associated Press