clock menu more-arrow no yes

Filed under:

Sony Walkman: music to your ears, through the years

A look back at some of the most iconic designs in the Sony Walkman line.

By Carl Franzen
Image Sony Press Room and Free Photos & Art (Flickr)
  • Sony Walkman TPS-L2 The original Walkman portable cassette player, released July 1, 1979.
  • Sony Walkman WM-101 The first Walkman with rechargeable batteries, slimmer than its predecessors.
  • Sony TCD-D3 Sony introduced Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) in 1987. This Walkman audio recorder/player followed in 1990.
  • Sony Walkman Sports WM-B52 The iconic 'Yellow Monster' Walkman of the 1990s was actually released in 1988. Credit: Free Photos and Art/Flickr, CC-by-2.0
  • Sony Walkman MZ-1 Sony introduced the MiniDisc (MD) as its new audio format in 1992, as well as this MD player Walkman.
  • Sony Walkman MZ-E50 By 1996, four years after it introduced the MiniDisc, sony had slimmed its Walkman players considerably.
  • Sony CD Walkman D-E01 Sony's first 'Discman' was released in 1984, but the company canned the name and replaced it with 'CD-Walkman' in 1999.
  • Sony Walkman NW-MS70D Sony began using flash memory in the early 2000s. This 2003 Walkman features both 256 MB of built-in flash memory and expandable memory cards.
  • Sony Walkman NW-HD1 Sony's flagship MP3 Walkman from 2004 came with 20 GB of storage and offered 30 hours of continuous playback. But at $400, it was too pricey to compete seriously with the iPod ($299).
  • Sony Walkman NW-E505/507 Sony says this MP3 player, released in 2005, was inspired by a bottle of perfume. It has 512 MB of storage.
  • Sony Ericsson Walkman W200 Sony's first Walkman phone, the W200 released in 2007, came with a Walkman key that enabled users to play MP3, MPEG-4, H263 audio on their phones.
  • Sony Walkman NW-X1060 Sony's first touchscreen Walkman, the NW-X series, debuted at CES in 2009. It failed to set the market on fire.
  • Sony Walkman NW-F880 The first high-resolution audio player in Walkman history, the NW-F880 series was released in 2013.
  • Sony Walkman NWD-W273 Sony was so excited to show off its waterproof, ultra-portable Walkman MP3 headphones, it sold them in containers of water as a promotion.
  • Sony Walkman NW-ZX1 What Sony's Walkman looks like today. It's come a long way from 1979.

Next Up In Tech