This object was originally lent to the V&A for the exhibition
The book and beyond: electronic publishing and the art of the book (April - October 1995) [94/371]. It was given to the V&A in 2015 [2015/871].
Historical context
The compact disc format was developed jointly by Sony and Philips from LaserDisc technology in the late 1970s. The CD was originally developed to store and play sound recordings (see Sony D-50, W.1-2015), but was later also utilised for storage (CD-ROM). Taking advantage of this, the DD-1EX ‘Data Discman’ was launched in Japan in 1990, and released the following year in the United States. It was the world’s first electronic book reader (or ‘player’, as Sony called it). Its 3.15 inch miniature discs could store up to 100,000 pages of text, or 32,000 graphics. Encyclopaedia and travel dictionary (traditionally large books) software were usually included as a sales bundle, its target market was students and international travellers. The device was desi