According to the Asahi Shimbun, the last MiniDisc players by Sony will be produced in March 2013. The MiniDisc format, which first appeared in 1992, never really attracted the masses and was quickly overlooked in favor of rewritable CDs and MP3s.
The MiniDisc (or MD) was launched by
Sony in 1992. It never really caught on with consumers except in Japan.
Sony stopped producing MiniDisc Walkman players in 2011.
The Asahi Shimbun added that 27 million MiniDisc players had been sold over 20 years.