Sony retiring cassette Walkman

Sony is sending its cassette tape Walkman into retirement in Japan as demand for a music player that was ground-breaking in its day dwindles to a tiny niche in the era of digital technology.

Sony stopped Japanese production of the portable music player in April and sales will end once the last batch disappears from stores, company mouthpiece Hiroko Nakamura has said.

Sony has sold 220 million cassette Walkman players globally since the product’s July 1979 debut that changed lifestyles by popularising music on the go.

More than 30 years later, the cassette Walkman has been rendered an anachronism by MP3 players and iPods.

Demand for cassette players in Japan is now largely limited to elderly users.

But Sony will continue production of the cassette Walkman in China to accommodate users abroad, including in the US, Europe and some Asian countries, Ms Nakamura said.

Meanwhile, Sony has slashed the price of its handheld game machine in Japan ahead of the critical Christmas shopping season.

It said that as from today the PlayStation Portable Go will be ¥16,800 (€141), down from ¥26,800 (€235).

The price has already come down in the US since last week from $250 (€177) to $199 (€141).

Cutting prices ahead of Christmas is common in the gaming industry, which tends to rake in more than half of its sales during the festive shopping season.

Sony faces tough competition in portable machines from Japanese rival Nintendo, which makes the DS. The machines also compete against Apple’s iPhone. The PSP Go is smaller than its predecessor and is only slightly bigger than an iPhone.

It does not play the Universal Media Discs that contain PSP games and videos and were used in older versions of the machines.

Instead, content is stored on the PSP Go’s hard drive or memory stick. Game software is downloaded.