Personal Portable Stereo
From pocket radios to the latest MP3 players, personal portable stereos have provided a private form of musical enjoyment. Plugged into their headphones, listeners effectively recede from the public space into an inner world inspired by their playlist.
The pocket radio, a device that could be that small because of the invention of the transistor, was the first truly portable music-playing device. The Regency TR-1, developed by I.D.E.A (Industrial Development Engineering Associates) of Indianapolis and introduced in 1954 for $49.95, was the first such product to make it to the market. It was followed closely by Sony’s (the company was then called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo) “pocketable” TR-63, which was a significant commercial success. However, the small speaker and earphone delivered poor sound quality, and it was Sony’s Walkman with its high-fidelity stereo headphones that transformed the world of personal listening.
Introduced in 1979, the Walkman created a new standard and was almost an instant market success worldwide. While other portable record players, cassette players and 8-track playback devices were in existence, none of them achieved the popularity of the Walkman with its superior sound and significantly smaller size (partly because it did not have recording capability). Corporations such as Panasonic, Aiwa, Philips, RCA and others started making portable cassette players following the success of Sony’s Walkman. As technology changed and newer formats developed, Sony introduced the Discman to play compact discs.
Considering the popularity and success of these portable music players, the debut of a mobile MP3 player was imminent. The first portable MP3 player released in the United States, in 1982, was the Rio from Diamond Multimedia. Since then, many more have come on the market including Apple’s MP3 player, the iPod, which became the essential device in the emerging landscape of digital music. Since the iPod’s introduction in 2001, Apple has sold 10.2 million units. Described as a cult object and winner of many design awards, it has changed how music is shared, transported, distributed, stored and consumed. Despite its high price, the iPod’s ubiquity reflects the styles, attitudes and new behavioral patterns of consumers across the age and economic spectrum.
The private environment the iPod creates around its user is often seen as a barrier between the individual and the community, but it has also led to a new kind of shared space through virtual communities such as electronic forums and web logs. For example, iPodLounge.com is a website “dedicated to the iPod enthusiast” that features news, reviews, forums for discussions, technical advice, etc. “for all things iPod.” This website and others like it may be seen as alternatives to shared physical space, a kind of a hybrid environment that gives new meanings to the words “private” and “public.”
