Walkman is a Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

, and now used to market Sony's portable audio

Audio frequency

An audio frequency or audible frequency is characterized as a periodic vibration whose frequency is audible to the average human...

 and video

Video

Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

 players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

 mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s. The original Walkman introduced a change in music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 listening habits by allowing people to carry music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones.

The device was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara

Nobutoshi Kihara

Nobutoshi Kihara was an engineer at Sony, best known for his work on the original Walkman cassette-tape player in the 1970s and was commonly called Mr...

 for Sony co-chairman Akio Morita

Akio Morita

Akio Morita KBE was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka.-Early life:...

, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent trans-Pacific plane trips.