D-2001

The D-2001 is a portable CD player from Sony's 1987 range that added a wired remote to an otherwise straightforward Discman platform. It kept the compact body and familiar transport logic of the lineup at the time, but the remote shifted some of the interaction away from the main unit and made more sense once the player started spending time in a bag or under a jacket instead of in the user's hand.

This is the part of the line where portable CD is starting to absorb the compact usability lessons cassette Walkman had already gone through. The D-2001 did not need to reinvent the category. It just pushed the machine a little closer to the way people were actually beginning to carry and use these things.