PC World, Europe’s leading chain of computing superstores announces today that it will no longer stock floppy disks once existing stock has been sold. The floppy disk, capable of storing 1.44 megabytes of data, is now no longer adequate for most day to day computing requirements, PC World states.
Rising electronic storage requirements, the development of more convenient and robust storage systems and the dramatic expansion of electronic transfer of data via email and computer networks have contributed to the demise of the 3.5 inch disk, and with it the disappearance of the “A drive”.
“The sound of a computer’s floppy disk drive will be as closely associated with 20th century computing as the sound of a computer dialing in to the internet”, said Bryan Magrath, commercial director of PC World. “The pace of technological change is relentless and it is now increasingly standard for computer users to transfer data via the internet or use USB memory sticks, some of which will store the equivalent of 1,000 times the capacity of floppy disk. With that amount of memory available in such a small and convenient device, the floppy disk looks increasingly quaint and simply isn’t able to compete.”
In 1998, an estimated 2 billion floppy disks were sold, according to the Recording Media Industries Association of Japan. Global demand had fallen by around two thirds to an estimated 700 million units by 2006, reflecting the rapid decline of the storage medium and the rise of other storage and distribution methods.
Today, 98% of the PCs and laptops sold by PC World no longer have in-built floppy disk drives and by the summer it is expected that the number will rise to 100%.
Floppy disks, also known as floppies, were ubiquitous in the 1980s and 1990s. They were used on PCs to distribute software, transfer data between computers, and create small backups. Before the popularisation of the hard drive for PCs, floppy disks were typically used to store a computer’s operating system (OS), application software, and other data. Since the floppy drive was the primary means of storing programs, it was typically designated as the ‘A:’ drive and a hard drive were designated the ‘C:’ drive, a convention that remains in place today.
The development of other portable storage options, such as USB storage devices and recordable or rewritable CDs, and the rise of downloadable music and digital photography have encouraged the creation and use of files larger than most 3½-inch disks can hold. At the same time, the increasing availability of broadband and wireless Internet connections has rendered small scale removable storage devices largely obsolete.
By the early 1990s, growing complexity of software meant that many programs were distributed on sets of floppies. Toward the end of the 1990s, software distribution gradually switched to CD-ROM, and higher-density backup formats were introduced. With the arrival of mass Internet access, the floppy was no longer necessary for data transfer either, and the disk looked destined for the Antiques Roadshow.
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