Sony Walkman: No longer from Japan

Sony Walkman: No longer from Japan

Entertainment giants Sony were the first one to envision the portable music player when they launched the first Walkman in the year 1979. A lot has changed since then. Cassette and CD based portable music players are out and digital media based portable music players are now ruling the market.

And surprisingly, Sony has lost the crown to Apple and has become an underdog. Apple took over the mantle of developing cutting edge digital music players in the market when they launched the first Apple iPod a couple of years ago. Now, they sell millions of these devices every year and market analysts believe that their domination is going to stay for a while.

Sony as a result is now looking at ways to cut manufacturing costs of their players to become more competitive in the market and challenge Apple more comprehensively. As a result, the Walkman range of players would no longer be manufactured in the Sony’s homeland Japan as they are now shifting the manufacturing bases abroad.

The company has confirmed that they are halting the production of Sony Walkman at its plant in Saitama. These players would now be manufactured in China and Malaysia.