Originally posted by: thomsbrain
yes, bringing the compact disc to the market in the 80's was definetely a low point in media storage. they were junk compared to the 8" floppy disks and cassette tapes everyone was using at the time. :roll:
i might also point out that CD's would have been a mere 60 minutes if Sony hadn't pushed for the 74 minute standard so that symphonys would fit. they also brought us the walkman, the discman, the 3.5" floppy disk, Betamax (a television standard until only recently), DAT (a continuing recording industry standard), CD-R (along with philips and TY), Steadyshot, Digital8, Playstation, and some of the most respected audio recording consoles in the world (try $1 million a pop). they also bring a lot of the movies and music you probably enjoy to the market, as they own Sony Pictures, Columbia TriStar, Arista, BMG, Columbia Records, Epic, J, Jive, LaFace, RCA, Verity, etc.
that said, sony has made some blunders in the past (minidisc, memory stick). and their stuff costs too much, and it's not any more reliable than anyone else's stuff. so they certainly aren't god.