The New York Times is reporting news that you probably already knew if you’re old enough to even remember using one: the car cassette deck is next to non-existent. New research has found that the last new car to be factory-equipped with a cassette deck in the dashboard was a 2010 Lexus. This really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise seeing as how cassettes’ end pretty much came with the CD’s arrival. So why is this even worth mentioning? Well, for a few reasons:
-This story brings back memories of the 8 year old me forcing my parents to listen to my Use Your Illusion I tape in our Honda car. So yeah, there’s a bit of nostalgia involved.
-This just goes to show you that there’s always something ready to replace and out date the current “top product.”
-But perhaps most importantly, there are still a lot of people that don’t want to let the last generation go. I can’t think of anyone that’s used a cassette player, but as recently as last year, you could still get one in your car. And there are probably quite a few people that still have older cars that only have cassette players, or use them with adaptors to listen to their iPods.
In other words, and as VP for automotive research for the IHS iSuppli Corporation Phil Magney puts it, it’s only a matter of time till we ask how long will it take for the CD to be replaced. Looking at how awful music sales have been lately, the answer to that question might come very soon.
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