iPod — the Walkman de nos jours?

“In a 10 page research note released to clients this morning, Merrill Lynch analyst, Steve Milunovich, once again raised his estimates for Apple’s December quarter and 2005 fiscal year by $0.02 and $0.07, respectively. Milunovich also raised Apple’s 12-month price objective to $78.
[…]
The most interesting segment of Milunovich’s report deals with the iPod adoption rate as compared to the early adoption rate of Sony’s Walkman. ‘iPods are being adopted faster than Sony Walkmans were back in the early 1980s,’ the report claims. A graph accompanying the report reveals that after nearly 2.5 years, iPod shipments are approximately 1 million units ahead of the Walkmen’s pace after being on the market for the same period of time.” [From Apple Insider.]

Ah, that first Walkman… Which reminds me — I was an early adopter then too. (Rummages in drawer.) And I still have it! (Photographs it proudly.)

Still in working order too. It had one really neat feature — two headphones sockets so that you could share your music with a (very good) friend using the ‘Hot Line’ button.

Funny thing was: that feature disappeared quickly from subsequent models. We had a theory that the Catholic church objected to it on the grounds that it might encourage couples to listen in bed!