ABSTRACT
Sony Corporation, one of the world's largest electronics companies, starts in 1945 as the Tokyo Tsushin Kenkyujo, or Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute. Sony's new product development process began with the construction of a handmade model. The first Sony Walkman, the TPS-L2, was introduced to the Japanese market on July 1, 1979. The product, a fusion of a small playback-only tape cassette player and lightweight headphones, was an immediate success. It created a completely new type of product, the personal audio system. Sony introduced a second-generation product WM-2, in February 1981. The WM-2 was the first product to use the Walkman name worldwide. The introduction of the WM-2 signalled the beginning of the proliferation of the Walkman line. The WM-2 established both the personal audio system and the dominance of the Walkman line throughout the world. The success of the WM-2 reflected the heavy emphasis that Sony engineers placed on compactness, high performance, and superior sound quality.
