Minidisc Players
Period of Use: 2010 to 2014
Made Obsolete By: MP3 Players and Apple’s iPod
It’s possible some people never even heard of minidisc players, and it’s not shocking. They were only around for a cup of coffee, but the idea behind them made sense. Instead of trying to carry around heavy tech devices or lug around a bunch of stuff from your music collection, why not miniaturize it? It made sense, which is likely why these things became huge in Japan and in some parts of Europe. Yet they never really took off as much in the United States.
Sony developed them, which explains the Japanese connection. They even saw some good profit, with over 22 million being sold up to March of 2011. By 2013, Sony stopped making them due to the drastic drop. They played small music cartridges usually with only 1 song on them. Naturally, people were not going to be invested for long, especially with the much more impressive MP3 Players and Apple’s iPod. Thus putting Minidisc players on the obsolete tech products list.