"In year 2000, we connected Mini Disc recorders to the PC and that was a huge hit for us last year. Personal MD sales are up 34 percent in the last year."
Sony's Mobile Products Company President Ronald Boire. The sudden popularity... .is tied to the MP3 music phenomenon. That digital music can now be stored on Mini Discs that sell for a very reasonable two dollars or so apiece. And a new generation of player recorders coming out this year... .will make Mini Discs an even bigger bargain...
"We've modified the format, you'll now be able to record five hours on one, two dollar MD disc."
And Sony is using the same concept... .more digital storage for your money... in its new line of Mavica digital cameras. Instead of floppy discs... they store photos on small format CDs... .
"Insert the 8 centimeter disc into the camera and you take your pictures directly to a CD-R or CD-RW media."
156 megabytes of storage for as little as four dollars. That's enough for as many as a thousand stills or 90 minutes of digital video. And product manager Jim Malcolm points out, you can access your photos in any computer instantly. The new cameras will be available in June starting at around 800 dollars. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg Radio.