Sony Stops Supplying MiniDisk Walkmans

With storage and multimedia solutions evolving, it is inevitable that some inventions will eventually get so outdated that they won't be anything more than museum pieces, something that walkmans, or some types of them, seem well on the way towards becoming.

The consumer market has been making liberal use of portable media players ever since the cassette and cassette players were first invented.

Granted, initially at least, cassette players were big bulky things, but Sony eventually created what is today known as the walkman.

These products stopped being manufactured last year (2010), understandable considering the rise of MP3 and MP4 players, to name just a couple of much more compact and versatile inventions.

Nonetheless, Sony has, at least, still been selling MiniDisk Walkmans, but this isn't going to last for much longer, or so reports say.

For those that want a clear image of things, MiniDisk Walkmans use what are essentially optical disks placed inside cartridges reminiscent of 3.5-inch diskettes.

Up to 80 minutes of audio (650 MB of data, more or less) can be stored on one of these items, and it falls to the aforementioned walkman to playback whatever songs occupy that space.

Unfortunately, because of pricing issues and more or less minor advantages over regular CDs, the former never really had extraordinary success, despite its several unique assets.

Regardless, Sony has decided to pull the plug on the production of MiniDisc Walkman Personal Stereos, starting September this year (2011).

After that, they will continue to sell for as long as store supplies last, though the same cannot be said about the MiniDisks. The company will continue to make cartridges for a while, plus stereos with support for them.

Finally, CD walkmans aren't going to see their end just yet, though one could say that it is only a matter of time until they do.