Sony to stop selling floppy disks from 2011

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8643844.stm

Sony has signalled what could be the final end of the venerable floppy disk.

The electronics giant has said it will stop selling the 30-year-old storage media in Japan from March 2011.

Earlier this year Sony stopped selling the disks in most international markets due to dwindling demand and competition from other storage formats.

The slow death of the "floppy" or "diskette" began in 1998 when Apple decided not to include a floppy drive in its G3 iMac computer.

Since then various other firms have stopped support for floppy disks on the majority of machines, including computer giant Dell in 2003.

Computing store PC World said that it would stop selling them in 2007 when stocks ran out.

However, Sony has continued to sell the disks, and continues to ship them in the millions.

Now, the firm - which claims to have produced the first 3.5in (9cm) disks in 1981 - has decided to halt sales completely faced with competition from online storage and portable USB drives.

sad, but not the least bit surprising...

Im surprised it held on this long.

poundaproblem wrote:Im surprised it held on this long.

+1

MPC2000 users will cry about this news.

JUKE 179r wrote:MPC2000 users will cry about this news.

i'm a 2000 and a sp1200 user, so i'm gettin' a little worried
any suggestions?

big hit to mpc 2k users but its true. r.i.p floppy disks

thx wrote:

JUKE 179r wrote:MPC2000 users will cry about this news.

i'm a 2000 and a sp1200 user, so i'm gettin' a little worried
any suggestions?

You seriously don't have longer than 3 hours. Grab your wallet, don't even get your car keys, just start running to the closest electronic shop, and stock up.

Then I'd suspect there will be a bunch of folks going for a 3.5" media upgrade for a lot of things.

*waits for mpc prices to drop*

I dont think I ever saw a sony brand 3.5 floppy disk... I have seen plenty of 3M, maxell even.. I cant remember a sony one though.

yes me too
i don't understand if only the sony brand of floppy will be out of stock, or all the floppys in general

?

mr_debauch wrote:I dont think I ever saw a sony brand 3.5 floppy disk... I have seen plenty of 3M, maxell even.. I cant remember a sony one though.

I use to buy them by the cases back when they were popular.

dabmeister wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:I dont think I ever saw a sony brand 3.5 floppy disk... I have seen plenty of 3M, maxell even.. I cant remember a sony one though.

I use to buy them by the cases back when they were popular.

we used to have a pile of.. I think they were "lexar" or something like that. also there were generic ones that were the store brand for staples (staples is an office supply store chain here in canada, in the province of quebec they are called bureaux en gros) anyways they had some too..

MPC2000 users will cry about this news.

that's what i was thinking a few days ago when i heard the news.. but as pointed out, it's only Sony ceasing production, other companies aren't. with exception for samplers, i guess the only other impact is 3rd world countries (when floppy's cease altogether).

I usually stocked them up when I see them on the store shelves. I sample like crazy on my S950 and go through a box real fast. I'm pretty sure verbatim still makes floppy disks.