Long before the iPod, young hipsters danced along city streets grooving to tunes on their Sony Walkmans.
The Walkman TPS-L2, first marketed in 1979, edges out its modern-day descendent, Apple’s iPod, for top billing in a list of the 50 greatest gadgets for the past 50 years. The rankings, derived by PC World staff, are on the magazine’s Web site at pcworld.com.
“The Walkman set a lot of the groundwork for the iPod,” PC World editor in chief Harry McCracken said yesterday. “A lot of things that are cool about the iPod originated with the Walkman. That was the first time you had personal audio.
“And good old portable headphones were invented for the Walkman. Before that, you had those big, bulky things that you would use for your home stereo.”
Two digital video recorders, Replay TV and TiVo, tied for third – perhaps measuring how much most people hate commercials.
Among others making the list are the PalmPilot (No. 4), the Atari Video Computer System (No. 7), Nintendo Game Boy (No. 26), Sony Betamax (No. 29) and the Milton Bradley game Simon (No. 38).
McCracken said the Atari 2600 helped revolutionize the electronics industry in the late 1970s by bringing video games out of the arcade and into America’s living rooms. Until then, home systems featured archaic pong games and did not contain individual game cartridges.
While Mattel’s Intellivison video games would challenge Atari and for the most part had better graphics, they didn’t make the list because they weren’t as popular, he added.
Another significant gadget is the Regency TR-1, which ranked 10th and is considered the first transistor radio. Despite not selling well, the $50 Regency took radio out of the parlor and put it in people’s pockets.
Created in 1954, the Regency TR-1 ranked as the top gadget of the 1950s. The Kodak Instamatic 100 camera, which ranked 23rd overall, was tops for the 1960s.
The Sony Walkman ruled the 1970s, while topping the entire gadget list. Sony CDP-101, the first commercialized compact disc player, was tops in the 1980s and No. 5 overall. TiVo and Replay TV DVRs were the best gadgets of the 1990s, and the Apple iPod is tops since 2000, according to PC World.
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Gadgets from Atari to TiVo
Top 50 gadgets of the last half-century
1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)
2. Apple iPod (2001)
3. (Tie) ReplayTV RTV (2001) and TiVo HDR110 (1999)
4. PalmPilot 1000 (1996)
5. Sony CDP-101 (1982)
6. Motorola StarTAC (1996)
7. Atari Video Computer System (1977)
8. Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)
9. M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)
10. Regency TR-1 (1954)
11. Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)
12. Motorola Razr V3 (2004)
13. Motorola PageWriter (1996)
14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)
15. Phonemate Model 400 (1971)
16. Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978)
17. Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)
18. Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (1998)
19. Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
20. Handspring Treo 600 (2003)
21. Zenith Space Command (1956)
22. Hamilton Pulsar (1972)
23. Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
24. MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
25. Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
26. Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
27. Commodore 64 (1982)
28. Apple Newton MessagePad (1994)
29. Sony Betamax (1975)
30. Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
31. iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)
32. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)
33. Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)
34. Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 10 (1998)
35. Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
36. Iomega Zip Drive (1995)
37. Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (1978)
38. Milton Bradley Simon (1978)
39. Play Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)
41. BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
42. Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)
44. Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)
45. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
46. Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)
47. Timex/Sinclair 1000 (1982)
48. Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)
49. Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)
50. Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)
Source: PC World