Kevin Harrington

The End of the Walkman

The original Sony Walkman

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Kevin Harrington

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Launched in 1979, the Walkman has become synonymous with portable, personal music. Sony has now ceased production of the Walkman for their domestic Japanese market after 31 years and over 200 million sales worldwide.

This innovative product created an audio sector that was over 3 million units of personal stereos per annum in the UK alone, with Sony taking over 30% market share.

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Kevin Harrington Partner
Kevin Harrington is a Partner at Exit Factor UK, helping SME owners increase business value & build a rewarding, well-planned exit. Former CMO at BBC Worldwide.
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Comments

2 responses to “The End of the Walkman”

  1. Trevor Simms

    So were Sony caught napping, they had major market share in portable personal music, where are they in the MP3 market?

  2. Kevin Harrington

    The story here is that Sony were always good at mechanical solutions i.e. the Walkman. If it needed software it wasn’t their strength.

    Then along came Apple…they delivered a software solution that worked.

    1980s guru = Akio Morita
    1990s guru = Steve Jobs

    Sony have been catching up though and continue to be a considerable force to reckon with.

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