WM-B10

The WM-B10 is Sony's cheapest Walkman of 1988 and one of the clearest examples of the company's fully mass-market cassette strategy by the late decade. Replacing older entry-level models like the WM-22 and WM-33, it uses a lightweight colorful plastic body, a brushless disc-type motor, automatic tape-end shut-off, and a manual selector for metal-tape compatibility, all organized around a very simple fixed-azimuth playback mechanism. The controls were minimal and the construction was clearly designed around affordability first.

What counts with the B10 is less technical ambition than the way it suggests Sony still taking the low end seriously enough to keep it fresh and attractive. This was a machine meant to be bought casually, carries easily, and lived with without much ceremony. It was one of the products that helped keep the Walkman a normal object instead of a specialist one.