Before there were 1000 songs in your pocket, before there was the era of white earphones and music, there was the Sony Walkman.

Did you know that the first Walkman was sold under the brand name - Wasei-eigo and Sony almost lost the rights to manufacture the Walkman.

It all started with the earliest version of the compact cassette recorder, which was developed by Philips in the 1960s.Later on, an inventor named Andreas Pavel reiterated the design for carrying it around the waist to listen to music via headphones in 1970. He notably, went on to claim that the Walkman design is his own and not Sony’s, but because Sony did have a pocket-sized mono cassette recorder, TC-50 back in 1969, they won the suit and retained the Walkman.

From the genius minds of Masaru Ibuka & Norio Ohga, The Walkman took its earliest form of the “World’s first personal Stereo”.

With innovations like cassette-sized pocket stereo, autoreverse capabilities and rechargeable batteries, Sony always kept its customers, looking forward to more. The ability to play one’s personal choice of music and listen privately was a huge selling point of the Walkman, especially among teens, who greatly contributed to its success.

The Walkman didn’t just transform music; it also transformed Sony’s financial fortunes. In the ’80s, it accounted for over 50% of Sony’s total operating profit.

By 1983, a mere four years after its debut, the Walkman had already crossed the billion-dollar mark in sales revenue.‍

By 2009, when production ceased, over 385 million Walkman units had been sold globally.

Fast forward to today, Its unmistakable identity became a cinematic icon (yet again), notably in "Guardians of the Galaxy" where Star-Lord grooves to '70s tunes on his Walkman.The film's success, coupled with a surge in Walkman-related merchandise, contributed to a spike in Sony's stock by 2% in the months following the movie's release.In an attempt to recapture the past magic, Sony Launched NW - A306, a digital upgrade on its retro predecessor in 2023. However, the jury is still out on it!