12 vintage walkmans @ oobject…
Apple may be the king of portable media in this millennium, but years ago, electronics giant Sony was dominating the market with its portable Walkman cassette player. The Walkman came in all forms, playing AM/FM radio, cassette tapes, CDs, MiniDiscs, video and eventually, MP3s. These are some of our favorite models, encompassing a broad period of time where the Walkman was on the top.
And the best new “Walkman” of all time? The “DIY Waterproof iPod Walkman Case” — based on the RetroPod. In 2004 a maker creator an iPod case called the “Retropod” – the makers did a great job, learned about foam/cushioning and made a great case from old (and soon to be thrown out) Sony Walkmans. Surely Sony would be thrilled people are recycling, reusing and celebrating the days of sporting a Walkman, no – they sent a cease and desist and the Retropod was never sold…
“Sony recently learned that you are selling a case for carrying an iPod personal stereo that is made from a WALKMAN tape player. The product is being offered at your website at www.retropod.com.
Your use of casings for such a purpose is a clear infringement of the SONY and WALKMAN marks because it is deceptive. Consumers likely will be misled and deceived into believing that Sony is somehow connected with the iPod personal stereo when in fact it is not. Moreover, they will be misled into thinking that Sony is backward in its design of products and is going away from miniaturization, as the size of the tape player housing is quite large by today’s standards.
Accordingly, we demand on behalf of Sony that you immediately cease and desist from selling, or offering to sell or distributing your Retropod product…”
I haven’t kept up with Sony’s latest offerings, but I just poked around and saw that Sony announced the Sony 32GB Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo HX. Post up in the comments f you have a recent Walkman!
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