Floppy disk: Encyclopedia II - Floppy disk - Current situation

Floppy disk - Current situation

The 8-inch, 5¼-inch and 3-inch formats can be considered almost totally dead. 3½-inch drives and disks are still widely available. As of 2005 3½-inch drives are still common equipment on many new PCs other than laptops. On others, they are either optional, or can be purchased as aftermarket equipment. Even after the beginning of 2006, there have been floppy disks at retail computer stores.

However, the advent of other portable storage options, such as Zip disks, USB storage devices, and recordable or rewritable CDs, and the rise of multi-megapixel digital photography have encouraged the creation and use of files larger than most 3½-inch disks can hold. In addition, the increasing availability of broadband and wireless Internet connections is decreasing the utility of removable storage devices overall. The 3½-inch floppy is growing as obsolete as its larger cousin became a decade before. However, the 3½-inch floppy has continued use longer than the 5 1/4 inch floppy.

Some manufacturers have stopped offering 3½-inch drives on new computers as standard equipment. The Apple Macintosh, which popularized the format in 1984, began to move away from it in 1998 with the iMac model—possibly prematurely, since the basic model iMac of the time only had a CD-ROM drive giving users no easy access to removable media. This made USB-connected floppy drives a popular accessory for the early iMacs. In February 2003, Dell, Inc. announced that they would no longer include floppy drives on their Dell Dimension home computers as standard equipment, although they are available as a selectable option for around $20. Many USB mass storage devices had their prices fall below the price of both internal and external floppy disk drives.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Current situation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki