Latest Technology News:
Technology news from around the world subscribe to our RSS feed.
Floppy disks dropped by superstore
31/01/07 - The computing giant PC World has said it will no longer sell floppy disks in its stores. After more than two decades they are now deemed surplus to requirements, Email, CDs and USB memory sticks have replaced them as storage devices.The 3.5-inch disk only stores 1.44MB of data whereas CDs store over 700MB and a DVD holds 8.5GB. Currently 2% of PCs and laptops sold by PC World contain built-in floppy disk drives but these will be phased out by the summer.
The Recording Media Industries Association of Japan advised that approximately 2 billion floppy disks were sold in 1998. In 2006 global demand was an estimated 700 million, a drop of two-thirds.
Many of the leading computer manufactures stopped building floppy drives into their machines years ago. The iMac released in 1998 was the first system not to have one and then in 2003 Dell stopped putting any in its top end machines.
Bryan Magrath, commercial director of PC World said, "The pace of change is relentless and computer owners use memory sticks, some of which have 1,000 times the capacity of a floppy disk. With that amount of memory available, the floppy disk looks increasingly quaint."
IBM introduced the first floppy disk in 1971 after being developed by engineers led by Alan Shugart. By 1981, Sony had shrunk it to three-and-a-half inches the size still used today.
Link to this news article using the url below:
http://www.pulsewebhosting.com/news/floppy-disks-dropped-by-superstore/13/
Published Date: 2007-01-31 12:44:18Subscribe to our RSS News feed:
Web Hosting RSS
