Sony quits manufacturing the 21-year-old MiniDisc player

February 01, 2013

As of next month, the Sony MiniDisc will be no more. A report by Asahi (via Engadget) says that Sony has stopped producing the portable audio players, which were meant to be a replacement for the analog cassette. A final batch of MiniDisc players will ship in March. Other companies like Onkyo may continue to produce MiniDisc devices, but Sony is finally walking away from the format. Sony introduced the first MiniDisc player in 1992. The audio players were small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. The optical discs, which had their own enclosures, supported digital recording as well as playback. Although the format was popular in Japan, and to a lesser extent in Europe, it never really caught on with U.S. consumers, largely because the players and discs were incredibly expensive. Also, record labels never really took to the MiniDisc, as the compact disc because the dominant way to listen to music. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026855/sony-quits-manufacturing-the-21-year-old-minidisc-player.html