RIP 3.5″ Floppy Disk – Sony says the end is nigh

Image courtesy of sundesigns

Having pretty much stopped using 3.5″ floppy disks years ago, I pretty much assumed they had died a quiet death. Not so. Sony sold 12 million floppies in Japan alone last year (2009)!

Sony has decided to end their long life as of March next year (2011).

I still remember going from 5.25″ to 3.5″ floppies – that was really a huge improvement in technology for at least 3 reasons – sturdier case, smaller form factor meant you could slip it into your pocket (and not bend it so easily) , greater storage.

It’s funny that even the introduction of the Zip disks (and associated technologies) did not unseat the floppy, and many software makers still wrote programs and/or installers and/or recovery utilities to fit floppies.

RIP 3.5″ floppy – you served us well.