A moment of silence for the 3.5" floppy

[charlie]

Sony to pull out of floppy disc market in Japan

Sony Corp. will discontinue domestic sales of its 3.5-inch floppy discs at the end of this fiscal year, the company announced on Friday.

The electronics giant, which boasts a 70 percent share of the domestic floppy-disc market, will withdraw from the market at the end of March 2011.

The move was prompted by the wide spread of large-capacity storage devices such as USB flash drives. Other domestic manufacturers have already pulled out of the market.

Sony pioneered the global floppy disc market, launching the world's first 3.5-inch floppy discs in 1981. The devices spread widely as a storage medium for personal computers and word processors.

Sony's domestic floppy disc shipments marked a record 47 million units in fiscal 2002, but that figure declined to 12 million in fiscal 2009.

Sony wrapped up its overseas sales of floppy discs last month, with the exception of India and some other regions.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100424p2a00m0na008000c.html

[bergie321]

1. We just had a garage sale a few weeks ago

And I sold a case with about 20 3.5" floppies for $1. Now they will probably be a collector's item. I still remember buying my first CD-Rom drive and game (Caesar II).