1983 WM-10
Il WM-10 è un Walkman solo per la riproduzione.
1984
WM-30
The WM-30 was an ultra-compact playback Walkman from 1984 that refined the expandable design of the earlier WM-10 with a brushed-metal body and upright layout that kept its footprint unusually close to that of a cassette itself. Powered by a single AA battery, it combined Dolby B noise reduction with a manual tape selector and a sliding body that expanded only when needed for cassette loading. The whole machine was built around making playback from a full stereo cassette seem improbably small.
Where the WM-10 introduced the expandable format almost as an engineering statement, the WM-30 feels like Sony turning that idea into something broadly usable. It was aimed at people who wanted a Walkman that could disappear into a pocket or bag without feeling flimsy or stripped down. More than a radical departure, it marks the moment when the super-compact branch began to feel like a real part of the range rather than a clever side experiment.
La miniaturizzazione era arrivata al punto in cui i design Walkman compatti non erano più insoliti, e il WM-30 arrivò tra i primi a trattare quelle dimensioni come normali invece che sperimentali.
Seguiva il WM-20 telescopico, ma si muoveva verso una costruzione più accessibile usando un nucleo in plastica avvolto in un esterno di metallo spazzolato. Il sistema con una sola batteria AA rimaneva, e la struttura più leggera riduceva peso e costo conservando le proporzioni associate ai precedenti modelli collassabili.
Il design ora dava all'aspetto lo stesso peso dell'ingegneria.
