How Sony Pushed the Limits of The Walkman

The Impossibly Small WM-20

By 1983, the world had caught on to the Walkman.

Sony’s once-lonely invention had become a global obsession and a target. Dozens of rivals were flooding the market, fighting for a piece of the action.

The word Walkman had become a universal household term, so familiar it was dangerously close to generic, and Sony was no longer just leading the category but defending it.

The company set out to remind the world who started it all. And it answered with a marvel of miniaturization that still turns heads more than 40 years later.