CDs were launched in 1982 and the paper they link to about the tech behind Minidisc was published in 1983, but Minidisc wasn't brought to market until 1998. The

CDs were launched in 1982 and the paper they link to about the tech behind Minidisc was published in 1983, but Minidisc wasn't brought to market until 1998. The assertion is that Sony's (and the public's) focus on CDs prevented them from bringing Minidisc to market until it was too late to gain traction even with a giant advertising budget. I agree there are a bunch of other factors for Minidisc's failure. The replacement you mention, flash storage (or those mini spinning hard drives that went into the first iPods), weren't viable until closer to 2003.