What was your first portable music player? For me it was actually a beat up little Sony Walkman, and I'm pretty sure the first time I ever hit play was on Kriss Kross's Totally Krossed Out. (It was my brother's, I swear!) Now, after 30 years of cranking out the venerable player, Sony is finally turning out the lights.
A batch of Walkman cassette players produced back in April in Japan is now officially the final run ever, as Sony has announced that it won't make any more. Since first landing in 1979, the Walkman line has accounted for 200 million sales over the decades. The first one ever is pictured above: the two-tone Walkman TPS-L2, the first portable stereo player.
The TPS-L2 had two awesome features you just don't see anymore in a second headphone jack (so two people could listen to one Walkman) and a "hotline" button, which could allow the listeners to talk to one another by way of a built-in mic. In fact, both features were dropped by the time the TPS-L2's successor, the Walkman II, hit the shelves.
Fare thee well, cassette side of the Walkman name — you've had a good run! Interested parties can check out the last of the cassette players here. Of course, expect to keep seeing MP3 players and the like flying the Walkman flag.
Via Electronista
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