Last year Sony pulled the plug on the on the Walkman cassette player, now it’s the turn of the MiniDisc Walkman to become part of history. With a handful of stateside early adopters (and a few million others in Japan) eager to embrace any new technology, Sony’s rather extensive line of MiniDisc.
Walkmans never had a chance to dominate the portable audio market. But for one reason or another, the company kept up production of the optical player / recorder combos for nearly 20 years. According to The zdnet, Sony has sold some 22 million MiniDisc Walkman devices between its launch in 1992 and March of this year. Just to put that into context, Apple sells more than 20 million iPods per year. With a countless selection of more affordable solid-state alternatives available today, however, it’s certainly not shocking to see good ole MD go the way of the laserdisc and the cassette.
