Another Sony Walkman bites the dust, this time the MiniDisc Walkman. What? You didn't even know they were still around?
Matter of fact, 22 million of the devices have been sold as of March (yes, of this year!) since it was first introduced in 1992. But as of September, it will be a relic of the past. (Some might say it already is, but in two months, Sony will officially discontinue it.)
The Nikkei wrote about the beginning of the end of the MiniDisc Walkman (don't you want to call it a MiniDiscman? Well, don't you?!) "due to shrinking demand."
Oh, really?
While they were cool back in the day because the discs were half the size of a regular CD (thus, "Minidisc"), they couldn't bear up against the no-disc factor of the mp3 players, especially after the arrival of the iPod in 2001. That, and as Gizmodo reminds us, "it was crippled by limited album releases and in typical style, exorbitant prices."
Sony stopped production on its beloved cassette Walkmans (ok, I had TWO of them, so they were beloved to me!) in April 2010 after 31 years of making family road trips and early morning bus rides bearable (I'm just speaking for myself here, how it saved me). They were about 10 times more popular than the Minidisc version: about 220 million of the portable plastic music players have been sold.
Those who have been hankering for the MiniDisc Walkmans, or want to add it to their collections, have until store inventories are depleted to make that happen. (Best bet: go to Japan.) Nikkei reports: "Sony will continue to make the MiniDiscs themselves, as well as stereos that can play back the audio discs. It will also keep producing CD Walkmans."
How long do you think it'll be before those will be gone, as well?
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