From Walkman to theiPodhistory and evolution of product design applied to music. The true ancestor of portable music devices was the record player. Used mainly for listening to songs in company, it was equipped with a cartridge, turntable, integrated loudspeaker and ran on battery power. Not very comfortable, of course, but around the mid-1950s it was a real innovation. If one thinks of the music that kids listened to at home during parties, the portable record player comes to mind, not least because not all families were equipped with a fixed device, which was quite expensive at the time. This contraption, which was very successful, can be considered a forerunner of the portable music of our times, with the difference that the almost 70-year-old one was not designed with the idea of being able to 'please' just one person.
Walkman, forerunner par excellence - The real revolution in portable music this time on tape. Thanks to the cassettesa fairly small device with headphones, the Walkman made it possible to play music 'in your pocket'. In theevolution of product design in music, the first device was marketed in Japan in 1979 and what made it truly innovative, apart from its general compactness, was its excellent sound quality. At the time, the price started from a base of around 200 dollars, but this did not discourage true music enthusiasts, so much so that within a few years it became so famous throughout the world that production costs were decisively lowered. Apart from the purely technological fact, what revolutionised the way of listening to music was the design of a product that allowed anyone to meet a variety of artists anywhere, anytime. Away from what is going on around, a way to be alone among people. The Walkman is the icon of the 1980s.
The CD player in the evolution of music product design.
But a mention, before we get to the mechanisms known to the younger generation of this era, deserves the portable CD player. After cassette tapes, in fact, in the 1990s the well-established idea of taking music everywhere, but no longer reproducible on a cassette tape, remained unchanged. it is the era of the Compact Diskwith a distinctly different design, but drawing inspiration from the vinylhaving data recorded on a spiral track. And just as with cassette tapes, CDs were (and continue to be) successful also because the sound reproduced by the players was significantly better than that of the Walkman, its predecessor.
iPod, the 'Apple' revolution - Here the first mp3 playerthe one that shed new light on music and the way it is listened to around the world. It was born in 2001, produced by Appleand 17 years after its release we can say almost with certainty that it contributed to theevolution of product design of portable music. With a white polycarbonate body and minimal lines, it is still the lightest device that plays music. A bit like the latest generation of smartphones, it has been criticised because, according to many sociologists, it has contributed to the sharp decline in interpersonal relationships, having given people the opportunity to be absent, albeit in company. But it is the public's response that counts and if you think that within a year Apple managed to sell no less than 600,000 units, it can be considered a worldwide success. In 2008, the numbers are impressive, 160 million units sold. A demonstration of how technology applied to theevolution of product design can contribute to the success of a company and to an ever-changing lifestyle. And who knows what the future still holds.
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