The first time the Cassette-based Sony walkman went on sale was the 1st of July 1979 in Japan. It was widely used by journalists because of its portability. A very unusual fact when it comes to this consumer-electronics product is that it was in production without changing for almost 20 years.
Sony was forced to release a newer version of it in 1989 because of fierce competition.
Since the Walkman was born until 1999, Sony would celebrate the anniversary by releasing an anniversary model on July 1st. This would occur every 5 years. These models would be based on a theme while still maintaining some of the characteristics from the previous model.
The Cassette-based Walkman was passed over in the late 1990's which was in favor of emerging digital technologies, however, Sony still continued to make cassette-based Walkman's until 23 October 2010.
Ironically the iPod was introduced on 23 October 2001 meaning that on iPod's 9th Anniversary, the Walkman officially "died".
The reason why I say it's ironic is because in actual fact it is not the iPod that decreased original sales for the Walkman, it was the CD player, also known as the Discman, but mistakes that were made by Sony by putting their faith in losing technology rather than trying to use the portable experience gave way to the iPod.
So in reality the date that the Walkman died couldn't be more perfect.
For iPods at very compatible prices, go and have a look at :
www.ishoponline.co.za
Sources that were used to publish this article were Digg and Wiki
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