JAPAN: Sony to kill off the MiniDisc Walkman
Reports are emerging from Japan that Sony is to kill off the MiniDisc Walkman this September.
Japanese business daily The Nikkei is reporting that production could end as early as the autumn. It follows Sony's decision to end production of its cassette Walkmans last year.
The first MiniDisc Walkman, the MZ1, appeared in Japan in 1992 – 13 years after the arrival of the cassette Walkman.
But the MiniDisc got into a format battle with Philips's rival DCC (Digital Compact Cassette), and neither format really took off. The arrival of MP3 players, and in particular the iPod, revolutionised the portable music player market.
By March of this year, Sony had sold 22 million MiniDisc Walkmans in total. Apple sells more iPods than that in a single year.
Sony says it will continue producing the discs themselves after September, and will also continue to manufacture CD Walkmans.
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Comments
To all lovers of the Minidisc, I have started an online petition to get Sony to reconsider their decision. I think if they reintroduced the Minidisc into the mainstream at a sensible price with some decent advertising, it could take off big time. Much more portable than a CD, much more versatile than MP3, I don't see why they have made such a mess of it. So, please sign my petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/BBMD2011/petition.html so they know that we are actually interested in their continued production of such an amazing technology.
Thanks everyone!
This is a great shame. If one were to be recording live gigs (which of course I never do and would never advocate...), a portable Sony MD recorder with an external mic would be the tool of choice. Furthermore, the Sony MiniDisc Walkman sound quality is far, far, far superior to any iPod incarnation, yet Apple wins on functionality. Why can't Apple, with all its technical wizardry, make an iPod that sounds like a Sony MD...?
Crikey! I didnt even realise these were still being made! I had that one in the photo and loved it. I can understand why they are being killed though, writing music onto a disc was a pain in the behind and the actual player was'nt THAT much smaller or compact than the CD players they replaced!