Cassette Tapes - Goodbye Old Friend

Electronics











(http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/_CASADPT.JPG)

March 1977 - Andreas Pavel filed patent for device in Milan; came to be known as the "Walkman"; July 1, 1979 - Sony introduced Sony Walkman; 1980 - began royalty negotiations with Andreas Pavel.

October 1, 1982 - CBS/Sony introduced compact discs (CD) optical disc media in Japan with 112 different CD titles, CD player (Sony's CDP-101); 120-mm (4.7-in.) diameter plastic disk, used tiny pits read by laser to reproduce sound or other information; two major CD plants: PolyGram's Hanover, West Germany plant, Sony's plant in Japan; advantages over phonograph record, recording tape: smaller size, greater dynamic range, extremely low distortion; sold over 20,000 CD players; June 1983 - CBS shipped first CD "prepacks; 1983 - sales totaled about 30,000 players, 800,000 discs;

1994 - reported sales of portable tape players peaked at 18 million, dropped to 480,000 in 2007 (source: Consumer Electronics Association); 2012 sales estimated at 86,000

1997 - 173 million music tapes sold; October 23, 2001 - Apple introduced iPod portable music player; 2006 - cassettes accounted for 7% of sales in $923 million audio-book market (source: Audio Publishers Association); Apple's domestic market share in flash-memory players = 68% (source: NPD Group); iPod sales reached 100 million (took Sony Walkman 14 years to sell that amount); 2007 - 400,00 music tapes sold, 1/10th of 1% of all physical, digital music sales (source: Recording Industry Association of America); 4% of 2007 model year cars sold in United States had factory-installed cassette players vs. 23% in 2005 model year (source: Ward's Automotive Yearbook);

June 2008 - Hachette released last audio book on cassette; June 19, 2008 - Apple reported more than 5 billion songs purchased, downloaded from iTunes Store; July 2008 - no Billboard magazine Top 10 album released on cassette.