Walking Into the Sunset?

Sony recently announced a big change for one of the most iconic electronic devices ever: the venerable Sony Walkman cassette player. The company announced that it will stop selling them in Japan, the original and home market for Sony. Curiously, this change only applies, so far, to the Japanese market. The Walkman cassette player will continue to be sold in the US and elsewhere.

Sony sold more than 220 million of the devices over the intervening 31 years, but 186 million of those came prior to 2000. The Walkman name lives on (in Japan and elsewhere) in other devices. Sony long ago extended the brand to CD players and MP3 players. And speaking of MP3 players, Sony's announcement came just one day prior to the 9th anniversary of the launch of the iPod.