5 inch floppy, it is three times smaller in size but seven hundred times larger in capacity. USB memory sticks do not have such storage capabilities like blu-ray discs but they still exceed the capacity of a diskette, and are in thumbnail size.
Digital devices are preferred instead of film photo and tape video cameras. Digital photo cameras have memory cards in the size of a biscuit. Storage capacities exceed those of a floppy more than ten times at the low end. With a floppy, one could store only up to five pictures in medium quality. Video and audio storage is even impossible. Furthermore, the increasing popularity of the MP3 audio format decreases demand for magnetic cassette players. Either optical discs or flashcards are used. Because of faster data transfer and physical size, there is no use of magnetic diskettes and cassettes in today's digital devices. Flashcards and optical discs are preferred.
In large corporations and small businesses, floppy disks are no storage solution anymore. According to Sandi Price, large queues at the printing station where the case five years ago. Today, local area networks make it possible to transfer and store large amounts of data fast and simple. Marketing managers, web engineers and graphic designers simply cannot store their multi megabyte work on one or two floppies anymore. Moreover, there are no frustrated employees in the corridor waiting for their documents to be printed. .
The floppy disk is a sensitive medium because of the more or less unprotected magnetic surface. Once the disk surface is damaged the diskette may become unusable. Most common reasons for this are fingerprints or dust on the disk surface, direct exposure to sunlight, and magnetic interference from mobile phones (Floppy). Because of durability and short life expectancy, many floppy disk manufacturers do not provide warranties for their products. In contrast, CDs from Verbatim have a lifetime warranty.