Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters
- The Sony Walkman turns 40 on Monday.
- Here are 13 other gadgets you probably didn’t realize had already passed the 20-year milestone.
The Sony Walkman turns 40 on July 1. The portable cassette stereo revolutionized how we consume music on the go, quickly seeped into pop-culture, and meaningfully preceded Jony Ive’s iPod design.
The Walkman was inspired by Sony’s cofounder Masaru Ibuka, who wanted a portable device he could use to listen to music on long flights.
Sony released the TPS-L2 Walkman in July 1979 in Japan. The device made it stateside by Christmas 1979, and by the next summer, The New York Times was calling it "the newest status symbol around town" in an article recently uncovered by Mentalfloss.
In honor of the Walkman turning 40, here are 13 other gadgets and products that you didn’t realize were already over 20 years old:
Tamagotchi
Reuters
The 1996 virtual pet is making a comeback in July 2019 at stores like Urban Outfitters and Target.
Bop It
Rick Diamond / Getty Images
The "fast talking, electronic" 1996 Hasbro game told players to "bop it, twist it, pull it, pass it" in its 1998 carnival-themed ad.
Nintendo Game Boy
Shutterstock
The original Game Boy, which came out in 1989, turned 30 this year. It’s led to dozens of successors; its first update in-color, Game Boy Color, was released in 1998.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Forget the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One — at least 10 major games are already being made for ‘next-generation’ game consoles
- We just got a much longer look at this year’s gorgeous new ‘Star Wars’ game — check it out right here
- The rival companies behind the Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch just sent a joint letter to the US government asking to be left out of Trump’s tariffs
Source: Business Insider – raydin@businessinsider.com (Rebecca Aydin)