Blueprint

WHEN THE FIRST Sony Walkman emerged in the late 1970s it revolutionised the way we listen to music. But it wasn´t a breakthrough design and was little more than a customised executive toy. Bored with endless international flights, Sony co-chairman Akio Morita wanted to listen to opera while airborne. In 1978 one of the company´s audio engineers Nobutoshi Kihara built a prototype version by modifying the company´s Pressman tape recorder. He removed the record function and introduced a stereo amplifier. And so the first portable stereo audio cassette player had arrived.