Walkman

Sony Walkman TPS-L2. The first Walkman.
Sony Walkman
Flickr

How Japan Blew Its Lead in Electronics

From an interesting article in WSJ:
"Seventy-seven percent of Japan's entire electronics output now consists of parts and components that often go into other firms' products. Yet a cost breakdown of Apple's iPod or iPad or Samsung's Android smartphone shows that the real money does not go to the parts producers but to the product inventors. Japanese firms are competing against Samsung when they should be competing against Apple, Intel and Microsoft."
WSJ

Wow 27/10/2011

Read more at BW.

Failure

Sony Qualia, NR500, Betamax, Insight, MiniDisc, ATRAC. Honda and Sony have some similarities. Both japanese, founded after WWII and very successful. But they have also made some notable failures. They tend to stick with an idea for too long, afraid of loosing face. At least Honda takes some pride in their failures. The positive side is that when they believe in an idea they go for it and really try to make the most of it. The Qualia 017 is a great example. Just having the guts to release a high-end MiniDisc player in 2004, costing $2399, 3 years after the iPod revolutionized the MP3-player market, and sporting their own proprietary format is either incredible brave or just foolish. Looked fantastic though with a brass body and palladium coating. The Qualia sub-brand was established by Sony to showcase new technology and there were some really nicely designed products. Like the iconic Qualia 004 projector.

TR-817

Solid State

Market research Sony style

"Akio Morita, co-founder and CEO of Sony and the man who made the Walkman vision a reality, says in his autobiography: ' I do not believe that any amount of market research could have told us that the Sony Walkman would be successful, not to say a sensational hit that would spawn so many imitators.' Back in 1979, Sony famously ignored all of its market research advice, and launched the Walkman. All its street-level market research had shown conclusively that people didn't want the Walkman. The idea of fixing two speakers into their ear-holes, within an inch of their brain, just didn't appeal at all. They had no experience of anything like this; they told Sony that the idea was a bad one. They said they wouldn't buy the Walkman.
 Before the launch of the first Walkman, Sony gave a prototype to 100 people to watch how they used it - much more powerful than asking them how they would use it. This research uncovered product benefits that Sony then focused on when advertising and positioning the Walkman. For instance, people were very surprised at the quality of sound, so that became a key advertising message.Most importantly the research showed that once people started using the Walkman, they fell in love with it. It became indispensable.
Asking people 'Would you buy a personal stereo with in-ear headphones?' got a negative response; but once people got the Walkman in their hands, they were hooked."

Design perfection

This is where Sony is coming from. Not a bad place.