As you have seen from previous posts I have been pondering why Sony failed to match the success of the iPod with it’s Walkman line of products when all of the good money was on Sony doing just that. This failure of Sony to capture this market could hold some good lessons for Microsoft as it starts to take on the iPod with it’s Zune player product.

Microsoft has a large job on it’s hands taking on what is arguably the most successful consumer product in history and they have a long way to go. On the fifth anniversary of the iPod, this is probably a good time to look back at the Walkman and explain why it’s original success was the seed to losing what could be the most important consumer battle of the 21st Century, the battle to reinterpret and reinvent the home entertainment experience, a title that Sony would love to have.

Over the next week we will look at the history of the Walkman products right upto the current NW-A1200 hard disk Walkman (there is a clue there).

The history of the Walkman dates back to September 1963, when at the opening of the Berlin IFA Exhibition, Fredrich Lachner of the German company Grundig proposed to Ohga that the two companies cooperate in developing a DC International Standard for cassette tapes, a standard conceived by three German manufacturers. While Norio Ohga (Head of Tape Recorder Division) considered this possibility, another proposal came from Wisse Dekker, manager of the Philips Electronics Far East Division and later president, and L.F. Ottens, a technical expert also from Philips. They came to Japan and proposed the co-development of the compact cassette to Ohga. Philips had already developed a compact cassette in 1963. The advantages of both the Grundig and Philips formats were weighed and considered. To Ohga’s credit Sony held out for the compact cassette to be royalty free and after some discussion, Sony adopted the format and entered into a non exclusive agreement with Philips. At the time they did not know that this was to play a large role in the eventual universal acceptance of the compact cassette format (It is ironic that Sony is now part of a battle to control high definition DVD and the royalties for Blue Ray).

From 1963 to 1981 the market for Magnetic Tape grew from 3.5B to 130B Yen with the advent of personal recording. Where as Reel to Reel tapes held onto the high end music mastering and audiophile markets, the compact cassette ushered in a whole new era of field recording which Sony has dominated to this day. However the real success of the compact cassette format lay in the distribution of pre recorded music which also was started by Philips through their subsidiary Philips and Mercury Records. Although the dominate format was Vinyl, cassettes proved popular for dubbing and for environments like car stereos. This combination of pre recorded music and cassettes lead to the first Walkman.

In 1978, Sony had a good business in home and vehicle audio however portable playback devices were only mono aural (mono). Sony added that year a small TC-D5 stereo model to its well-known Densuke series of portable tape recorders. Although popular among audiophiles, the TC-D5 was too heavy to be truly portable and the cost was prohibitive at 100,000 yen. The TC-D5 was part of the Sony Pressman range of recorders. This is where the name Walkman came from being a variation of the term Pressman. The Chairman of Sony at the time, Ibuka used to take the TC-D5 overseas to listen to music. He asked Ohga one day if they could come up with a small playback only player he could take with him. Ohga immediately called Kozo Ohsone, general manager of the Tape Recorder Business Division and made the request. The team came up with a modified Pressman with a smaller form factor and stereo headphones.

Qhen Ibuka returned from the U.S. he was obviously pleased with the unit, even if it had large headphones and lacked a record function. Ibuka went to Morita (then Chairman) and said, Try this. Don’t you think a stereo cassette player that you can listen to while walking around is a good idea? Morita took it home to try over the weekend, and he was also impressed. He agreed with Ibuka that the sound was quite different compared to conventional speakers, and he was excited by the fact that the device could be carried around easily, creating a personal listening experience.

There were two problems to solve, one was the weight and the second was the price. Sony had in development a set of headphones called Air Phones. They felt that the large 400g headphones would not sit well with the small form factor and make it difficult to carry around. The Air Phones at 50g was the right choice for a portable player (a senario that was to play out years later with the Apple ear buds).

On June 22 1979, when the journalists arrived at the Sony Building located in the Ginza area of Tokyo, they were escorted onto a bus and each handed a Walkman. They were taken to Yoyogi (a major park in Tokyo) and, after disembarking and receiving a brief greeting, they were instructed to put on the headphones and push the play button. The journalists listened to an explanation of the Walkman in stereo, while Sony staff members and students hired for the launch carried out various demonstrations of the product. The tape the journalists were listening to asked them to look at certain demonstrations, including a young man and woman listening to a Walkman while riding on a tandem bicycle. All staff members and students who were involved in the product demonstrations wore Walkman T-shirts to add to the overall effect of the launch.

The TPS-L was released to the public on July 1st 1979 to initial slow sales (3000 units). There was doubt that the product would be a success and many complained that the recording function was missing.

Because Sony had all the technology it needed to build this product, most of the work was done around the consumer experience. Although we think a lot about these concepts these days, in 1979 this was new thinking. In order for this experience to work, they had to work on headphone comfort, battery life and weight to target specifically at the portable music market. This product also needed prerecorded music on cassettes, a market created by home and vehicle audio. In fact the early Walkmans came with a sample cassette of music in order to demonstrate the product.In the next post I will look at why the Sony Player became successful (hint Tipping Point).

Computerworld light on facts heavy on speculation

Apple Prepares for Battle

Zune not IPod Killer, a Microsoft Partner Killer

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Check out Northvoice Independent Music Podcast here

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