Topic summary
Compact Cassette
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Cassette tape.
Development and release
Philips improved on the Compact Cassette's original design to release a stereo version. By 1966 over 250,000 compact cassette recorders had been sold in the U.S. alone. Japanese manufacturers soon became the leading source of recorders. By 1968, 85 manufacturers had sold over 2.4 million mono and stereo units. By the end of the 1960s, the cassette business was worth an estimated $150 million, and by the early 1970s compact cassette machines were outselling other types of tape machines by a large margin.