Sony plans to gradually stop producing recordable disks, including Blu-ray. According to the company, optical storage solutions are already outdated. Sony also intends to cut a significant number of jobs at its optical media manufacturing plant in Japan. This is reported by Tech Radar.
Sony has long been a key player in digital storage technology. The company introduced the compact disc in 1982, which it developed in collaboration with Philips, revolutionizing the way people store and access data and music. In 1995, Sony launched the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) in collaboration with Philips, Toshiba, and Panasonic. In 2006, the Blu-ray disc was introduced, offering even greater capacity.
In 2014, the company partnered with Panasonic to develop a new optical storage format for professionals - Archival Disc, which could store up to 300 GB of data.
"The growth of the cold storage market has not reached our expectations, and the performance of the storage media business as a whole continues to be in the red," a Sony Group spokesperson said. "We have determined that it is necessary to review the business structure to improve profitability."
Sony's Archival Disc cartridge division will also be downsized. Announced in 2020, the third generation of the product has a capacity of 5.5 TB.
Sony's decision will mainly affect consumers, as the company says it will continue to sell B2B products from its existing inventory. The company believes that the inventory will be sufficient to meet demand for a long time.