So that's it, the end of the MiniDisc has finally come. No more glorious whirr in your hand courtesy of an MD Walkman. You can forget the joys of spending hours recording tapes and CDs to your personal MiniDisc collection. Worse still, the fun gained from typing and tagging track titles with pause and play buttons will be no more.

Sony made the decision to kill off its own invention following continually meagre sales and limited success outside of Japan. Expect the hardware to disappear from shelves in September. Thankfully Sony will continue to manufacture MiniDiscs themselves. The format is much used in radio rooms the world over thanks to its easy recording and reliability. 

This isn't the first Sony special to bite the dust, recent times have seen another design classic by the company brought to an end. Last year it announced it was to halt production of the Walkman. Following 30 years of production, it represented the end of portable tape players.

Sony will, however, continue to make the CD Walkman which still sells. Shame really, with everything musical either moving over to the cloud or Mp3 downloads, it might not be long before the CD based Walkman disappears also. 

The last MiniDisc player listed on the Sony website is the MZ-RH1, unfortunately pricing is shown as unavailable. Those still keen to adopt will find eBay is the best bet. Us Pocket-linters expect a cult revival of the MiniDisc and Tape Walkman anytime soon, so make sure you hang onto yours if you have them! 

So come on..own up..did you buy a MiniDisc?