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Editorial

The Walkman turned 30 this year. A device that was originally created to ease the travels of a man rich enough to demand his own inventions became a symbol of the Me generation, of Japanese technical genius and a dramatic new design trend—miniaturisation. The first model was a technical marvel; within the decade the Walkman had become almost unbelievably tiny, barely bigger than a cassette case. With each new model, the question had to be asked: how are they going to top that?

While Sony figured out the answer, it missed the real question: what would replace the Walkman? Sony made MP3 players, but it wasn’t the market leader. MP3 players had too many obstacles to adoption: they were clunky, only geeks would put up with the convoluted process of getting tracks on the devices, and their very existence antagonised a defensive music industry (of which Sony was part). And they were all a bit … ethereal and difficult. Even if Sony could imagine a future where music and music players were entirely digital—even though it already had the technology and the content to make it happen—it was still hard to imagine how to get from there to here. So Sony didn’t—and instead, Apple parlayed the iPod into a product that probably saved the company and is now a disruptive presence in the smartphone market.

If you can’t change, change will be forced upon you. Just as Sony executives once complacently imagined a world where music would be sold over the wire and played on digital devices—probably assuming they would eventually make it happen when the time was “right”—media executives have been preparing for the time when their products, too, would be delivered over the wire. For years, they’ve been creating digital versions of print products, looking forward to their business model making a neat transition into a new medium.

But it doesn’t work like that, as the music industry already knows. Disruptive technology doesn’t respect your existing business model. The trick is to use the technology to create a better way of doing business.

In that respect, the Walkman isn’t just a symbol of technology. It’s a cultural symbol too. Those of us born since the Walkman innately understand the implications of new media. On page 40 Matt Suddain digs into the deeper significance of the Walkman, and on page 62 we look at the desperate attempts of media barons to transition into a new age. Disruptive change is certainly coming to your industry too, and probably sooner than you think. It might be risky to take the plunge too soon, but it’s usually fatal to leave it too late.

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