Walkman

Sony has discontinued the Walkman portable cassette player, at least in Japan. It came as a complete surprise that they were still making the 30 year old gadget. Apparently there is a market for the Walkman in the developing world and Sony will continue production of the cassette Walkman in China.

I never owned a Walkman as the idea of listening to music on the go never really appealed to me. That attitude hasn't changed and I still don't own any kind of digital music player. When I travel on public transportation, I'm in the minority as one of the few people without headphones. The portable music player became a way to control your personal space in public. With your head phones on, you effectively mute the crowd around you and reduce your interaction with them. People might as well be sitting in a private car; it's almost the same level of isolation.