AN UNBIASED VIEW OF INVENTION

The Sony Walkman debuted in Japan in 1979 (plus the U.S. in 1980) and quickly turned the It Girl of the ’80s. The Walkman alone was compact, lightweight, and moveable, and so ended up its headphones. As new gadgets debuted through the years—from Sony’s Discman to Apple’s iPod to smartphones as well as the Bluetooth headphones of these daysâ