Would a Walkman by any other name sound as sweet? Plenty of its imitators do, but I’ll bet you can’t name a single one of them. Since Sony introduced the little masterpiece 25 years ago this month, we’ve called them all Walkman … just as we call all gelatin Jello and all facial tissue Kleenex. Brand recognition doesn’t get any better than that. This branding comes from Sony’s commitment to cool design, cited by Tom in his appearances, with this quote from retired Sony chairman Norio Ohga:
At Sony, we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same technology, price, performance and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace.