2026 marks the 47th anniversary of the Walkman®.
Back in 1979, when listening to music on your living room sound system was the norm, the original Walkman® (TPS-L2) garnered attention for its revolutionary concept of letting people take their music with them on the go. In fact, it even had two side-by-side headphone jacks.
During its development, Akio Morita—one Sony's co-founders—carried the prototype machine home with him to test out what it was like to use. This is when he came up with a brilliant idea:
"What if we had two headphone jacks, so two people can enjoy listening to music together?"
Rather than simply becoming immersed in your music by yourself, he wanted to place importance on people sharing emotions and connecting with others. The two jacks were born from this kind of imaginativeness that is characteristic of Sony.
The headphone jacks on the original Walkman® were labelled "GUYS & DOLLS".
Another surprising feature was the orange-coloured HOT LINE button—pressing this would allow two listeners to keep their headphones on and chat to each other through the microphone. It was truly designed for connecting with others through music.
A catalogue from the time of the original Walkman® release
As time went on, the Walkman became a more compact and personal device, and the two jacks became one.
But the number "2" still remains on the original model. It serves as a reminder how it was imbued with the original creators' heartfelt desires for people to connect through music, at a time when new technologies were spreading throughout society.
