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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Harry Hare
[mailto:<st1:PersonName w:st="on">harry@africanedevelopment.org</st1:PersonName>]
<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, August 17, 2007 8:47
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> '<st1:PersonName w:st="on">kictanet@kictanet.or.ke</st1:PersonName>';
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'swopnet@dgroups.org'</st1:PersonName>; '<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">ethinktanktz@yahoogroups.com</st1:PersonName>'<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> CD celebrates 25th
anniversary</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>Dear Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>Interesting story, 25 year later, what appeared to be an
“engineering marvel” is fighting for survival! Read on…</span></font></b><font
size=2><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></h1>
<h1><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>Harry<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>+++++++++++++++<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>CD
celebrates 25th anniversary<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<!--endclickprintinclude-->
<p><!--startclickprintinclude--><st1:City w:st="on"><b><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>EINDHOVEN</span></font></b></st1:City><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region>
(AP) </span></b>-- It was August 17, 1982, and row upon row of palm-sized
plates with a rainbow sheen began rolling off an assembly line near <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hanover</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<!--startclickprintexclude-->
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><!--===========IMAGE============-->Are
CDs burnt out after 25 years?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><!--===========/CAPTION=========--><img width=4 height=4
id="_x0000_i1036" src="cid:image001.gif@01C7E10F.B025BA10">An engineering
marvel at the time, today they are instantly recognizable as Compact Discs, a
product that turned 25 years old on Friday -- and whose future is increasingly
in doubt in an age of iPods and digital downloads.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Those
first CDs contained Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony and would sound equally
sharp if played today, says Holland's Royal Philips Electronics NV, which
jointly developed the CD with Sony Corp. of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
recording industry thrived in the 1990s as music fans replaced their aging
cassettes and vinyl LPs with compact discs, eventually making CDs the most
popular album format.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The CD
still accounts for the majority of the music industry's recording revenues, but
its sales have been in a freefall since peaking early this decade, in part due
to the rise of online file-sharing, but also as consumers spend more of their
leisure dollars on other entertainment purchases, such as DVDs and video games.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As the
music labels slash wholesale prices and experiment with extras to revive the
now-aging format, it's hard to imagine there was ever a day without CDs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Yet it
had been a risky technical endeavor to attempt to bring digital audio to the
masses, said Pieter Kramer, the head of the optical research group at Philips'
labs in the Netherlands in the 1970s.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"When
we started there was nothing in place," he told The Associated Press at
Philips' corporate museum in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Eindhoven</st1:City></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
proposed semiconductor chips needed for CD players were to be the most advanced
ever used in a consumer product. And the lasers were still on the drawing board
when the companies teamed up in 1979.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In 1980,
researchers published what became known as the "Red Book" containing
the original CD standards, as well as specifying which patents were held by
Philips and which by Sony.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Philips
had developed the bulk of the disc and laser technology, while Sony contributed
the digital encoding that allowed for smooth, error-free playback. Philips
still licenses out the Red Book and its later incarnations, notably for the
CD-ROM for storing computer software and other data.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The CD's
design drew inspiration from vinyl records: Like the grooves on a record, CDs
are engraved with a spiral of tiny pits that are scanned by a laser -- the
equivalent of a record player's needle. The reflected light is encoded into
millions of 0s and 1s: a digital file.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Because
the pits are covered with plastic and the laser's light doesn't wear them down,
the CD never loses sound quality.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Legends
abound about how the size of the CD was chosen: Some said it matched a Dutch
beer coaster; others believe a famous conductor or Sony executive wanted it
just long enough for Beethoven's 9th Symphony.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Kramer
said the decision evolved from "long conversations around the table"
about which play length made the most sense.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The jump
into mass production in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>
was a milestone for the CD, and by 1982 the companies announced their product
was ready for market. Both began selling players that fall, though the machines
only hit <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place>
markets the following spring.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Sony sold
the first player in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region></st1:place>
on October 1, with the CBS label supplying Billy Joel's "<st1:Street
w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">52nd Street</st1:address></st1:Street>"
as its first album.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The CD
was a massive hit. Sony sold more players, especially once its "Discman"
series was introduced in 1984. But Philips benefited from CD sales, too, thanks
to its ownership of Polygram, now part of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The CD
player helped Philips maintain its position as <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>'s
largest maker of consumer electronics until it was eclipsed by Nokia Corp. in
the late 1990s. Licensing royalties sustained the company through bad times.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
CD was in itself an easy product to market," said Philips' current
marketing chief for consumer electronics, Lucas Covers. It wasn't just the
sound quality -- discs looked like jewelry in comparison to LPs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By 1986,
CD players were outselling record players, and by 1988 CDs outsold records.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It
was a massive turnaround for the whole market," Covers said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Now, the CD
may be seeing the end of its days.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>CD sales
have fallen sharply to 553 million sold in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place> last year, a 22
percent drop from its 2001 peak of 712 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Napster
and later Kazaa and BitTorrent allowed music fans to easily share songs over
the Internet, often illegally. More recently, Apple Inc. and other companies
began selling legal music downloads, turning the MP3 and other digital audio
formats into the medium of choice for many owners of Apple's iPods and other
digital players.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
MP3 and all the little things that the boys and girls have in their pockets ...
can replace it, absolutely," said Kramer, the retired engineer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>CDs won't
disappear overnight, but its years may be numbered.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Record
labels seeking to revive the format have experimented with hybrid CD-DVD combos
and packages of traditional CDs with separate DVDs that carry video and
multimedia offerings playable on computers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
efforts have been mixed at best, with some attempts, such as the DualDisc that
debuted in 2004, not finding lasting success in the marketplace.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Kramer
said it has been satisfying to witness the CD's long run at the top and know he
had a small hand in its creation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"You
never know how long a standard will last," he said. "But it was a
solid, good standard and still is."<span class=cnnembeddedmoslnk><!--startclickprintexclude-->
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/08/17/cd.anniversary.ap/index.html">E-mail
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