A year ago, the original IBM PC turned 25. And now, I'm being told that today is the compact disc's 25th birthday.
I know I am getting old, when I find that I am old enough to remember my first encounter with what is an everyday technology today. I still remember when a CD player was a museum piece (due to its excessive price), and when my choice was either vinyl (for quality) or cassette (for portability). Of course, CDs almost killed off the vinyl, and MP3 players have now eliminated cassettes.
I did not have my own CD player until late 1990, when a 5-disc carousel cost me $200 as part of a $500 system.
BBC has some interesting facts about the development of CDs, including the unusual alliance between Philips and Sony, and the very first CD being an ABBA album. Also, back in 1982, nobody had envisioned the CD being a data storage medium, which it ended up becoming by the mid-1990s.
BBC
