They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…
Not a great success in Germany either. I had one friend who was into it, everyone else stuck to tapes for a long time.
I guess the iPod is also a failure then since no one uses them anymore.
iPhone, very widely used today was described by Apple itself as "An iPod, a Phone, and an Internet Communicator" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK55ElsVzxM
Steve Jobs was so good at what he did. I am still a bit sad that he is gone when I think about it, because I would have really liked to meet him.
They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…
Not a great success in Germany either. I had one friend who was into it, everyone else stuck to tapes for a long time.
Or lugged around great big CD players or that monstrous Creative Nomad contraption.
What really killed this format is the draconian copy protection that crippled the software for getting the tracks on device (for NET MD players). Other method(s) of getting sound on MD was essentially dubbing, like you would with MC. Other players removed the artificial barriers of getting your music on device, and it turned out that antipiracy measures are not a feature... which is a shame, because the feel and soun…
Couldn't agree more. I loved minidisc but this is what killed it for me
They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…
I had one of the later models that had LP features, so up to 4x the music on a disc at a lower quality. It was also a recorder, which was so handy, and something no iPod ever offered. Many of my friends had players, 1 even had an in car player. That's in the UK. I think the big issue was that many people assumed Minidisc was supposed to be a replacement for CDs, rather, than a replacement for cassette. It's understandable why it wasn't marketed this way, but if it had, I think it would of taken off much quicker in the mid/late 90's.