Why Sony can’t bring back its classic Walkman models
Article excerpt
The Obsolete Sony’s Newsletter is regularly asked “why can’t the Sony simply bring Walkmans back?” There are stories almost every week announcing that cassettes and CDs are back, and several manufacturers now sell new players for both formats. From the outside, it can look as though Sony only needs to choose one, update a few […]
The Obsolete Sony’s Newsletter is regularly asked “why can’t the Sony simply bring Walkmans back?”
There are stories almost every week announcing that cassettes and CDs are back, and several manufacturers now sell new players for both formats. From the outside, it can look as though Sony only needs to choose one, update a few things, and put it back into production.
Akira Tanaka, who spent years designing Walkman at Sony, says it would be much closer to starting over.
Tanaka is a former Sony mechanical engineer whose published project list spans four types of Walkman: five cassette models, eight CD models, two MiniDisc models, and ten generations of file-based players.
There are several reasons they cannot be remade simply today:
The Parts No Longer Exist
The Manufacturing Technology Has Been Lost
The Economics Do Not Work
MiniDisc Media Is Disappearing
Development Resources Are Limited
Tanaka Is No Longer at Sony
See the reasoning in the post here.