Inside the Sony Walkman Room

During our recent trip to Sony Japan, we were shown all manner of wonderful gadgets and the kit that you'll be buying next year. Taking a toilet break between presentations to manage our excitement, we stumbled across the Walkman Room at Sony HQ in Tokyo and decided the toilet could wait for a bit.

Sheepishly entering the room, expecting a development lab, Sony engineers dancing in white suits and perhaps some dry ice, we saw every Walkman ever on display. In fact, every portable music device Sony have ever made including CD and Minidisc based players. The first ever Walkman is pictured below - it's called the TPS-L2 and was released in 1979...and yes, you were expected to attach it to your trousers.

The following series of images may bring back a few memories and if you're interested in seeing the 2009 Walkman, you'll have to read the next issue on 8th January. We've got one and want to tell you all about it, before anybody else...