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The End of the Walkman

Posted on Posted in Marketing, Music marketing 2 Comments
The End of the Walkman

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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I am a partner at Succession Plus. We are specialists in providing proactive, focused and strategic advice for SME owners to help them manage strategic Business Succession and Exit Planning.I am enjoying a career that has embraced product and service businesses at all stages of their journey. I have worked in technology, telecoms, consumer electronics, payments, media, and publishing.

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2 Comments on “The End of the Walkman”

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

  2. 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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