Sony to cease tape recorder shipments in early 2013
updated 07:33 pm EST, Sun December 9, 2012
Tape device discontinuation follows Walkman cassette demise in 2010
Sony is set to discontinue sales of its tape recorders and tape-based dictaphones in 2013. The final shipments of the TCM-400, TCM 410, and TCM-450 cassette recorders will be dispatched near the start of the year, and comes just over two years since the company discontinued its Walkman portable cassette player.
While the report from My Navi provides another nail in the coffin of the audio cassette format, Sony will still be supporting it for a while longer. Though sales of single-function devices using tapes are stopping, audio players and recorders that use the format along with others, such as a hi-fi with a CD player and a tape deck, will continue to be sold.
Customers will be encouraged to transfer over to flash-based recording devices in future.
