A second model released the following July offered a 20GB hard drive, a pressure-sensitive touch wheel, and a Windows-compatible version. It featured a 5GB hard drive and a mechanical scroll wheel, but worked only with Macs. Yet when the $399 iPod first appeared in October 2001, it was nothing special.
It rules the realm of digital music like no other device: According to the NPD Group, more than eight out of ten portable players sold at retail by mid-2005 were iPods. Apple iPod (2001)Īpple iPod (2001)If the Walkman is the aging king of portable media players, Apple’s iPod is prince regent. PCW photo by Rick Rizner Walkman courtesy of Melissa Perenson. Learn more in Sony’s history of the Walkman.
Now, more than 25 years and some 330 million units later, nobody wonders why you’re walking down the street with headphones on. Apparently fearful that consumers would consider the Walkman too antisocial, Sony built the first units with two headphone jacks so you could share music with a friend. The first Walkman (also branded as the Stowaway, the Soundabout, and the Freestyle before the current name stuck) featured a cassette player and the world’s first lightweight headphones. The $200 player virtually invented the concept of “personal electronics.” But when the blue and silver Walkman debuted in 1979, no one had ever seen anything quite like it. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)Portable music players are so cheap and ubiquitous today that it’s hard to remember when they were luxury items, widely coveted and often stolen.