THE STORY OF THE SONY

WALKMAN

Presented by:

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

A cycle through which every product goes
through from introduction to withdrawal or
eventual demise. Four stages are
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Walkman is a Sony brand name for portable audio
cassette players
It introduced a change in music listening habits
Prototype was built in 1978 by audio division
engineer Nobutoshi Kihara.
Walkman was launched in 1979 with flashy buttons,
leather case and headphones.
Offered an extra ear jack to let two people listen
music at the same time

INTRODUCTION PHASE

INTRODUCTION PHASE

GROWTH PHASE

GROWTH PHASE

MATURITY PHASE
Sony joined by competitors like Aiwa, Panasonic & Toshiba
To tackle the competitor Sony launched new variants and new models.
Proliferation of features
Price War

MATURITY PHASE
From Showroom based channel to Retailer based strategy
Advertisement stared focusing more on after- sell service and price
Substitute like i-pad started gaining market
Digital music and FM radio emerged.
New Competitor rise in the market

DECLINE PHASE
Year

Model Name

1979

Sony Walkman TPS- The original Walkman cassette player portable

L2
Sony Walkman WM- This was the first Walkman that came with
101
rechargeable batteries. It was much thinner than
its predecessors.
Sony TCD-D3
In 1987, Sony launched digital magnetic tape also
known as the digital audio tape which was added
to this model in 1990. In addition to playing audio
the Sony TCD-D3 Walkman could also record
audio.
Sony Walkman MZ-1 Sony Walkman MZ-1 was the first Walkman with a
MiniDisc
Sony Walkman MZWithin four years of the launch of its first
E50
MiniDisc version Sony launched a slimmed-down
compact version of the Walkman MiniDisc format
support.
Sony CD Walkman D- Use of CDS Started
E01
Sony Walkman NW- The market hit the first Walkman, which had 256
MS70D
MB of flash memory and a removable memory

1985

1987

1992
1996

1999
2003

Features

DECLINE PHASE

In October of 2001,
Apple announced the
iPod. Both mp3s and
broadband were finally
widely available

Sony's flagship MP3 Walkman from

2004 came with 20 GB of storage
and offered 30 hours of continuous
playback. But at $400, it was too
pricey to compete seriously with
the iPod ($299).

finally after the sale of 200 million cassette

player Sony retired the classic cassette tape
Walkman line in 2010.

to shut down its

loss making
products from its
product line and
invest more in profit
making product.

THANK YOU