We have all got used to the new technology’s devices, as if we were born with them at our feet. Well, for our bright youngsters this is quite true, as for many of them the computers and video gaming consoles have represented real babysitters.

However, this article is not about them, but about us, the older ones; we are now handling CDs, DVDs, iPods, routers and all kind of tinier and softer devices and high tech products as if we’d used them since childhood. And that’s not a bad thing; it’s just that we’ve started to forget our past, our dearest first (but slow) computers, our first meeting with the new era’s devices and so on. We’ve started to disrespect the slower devices, forgetting that it was them in fact that revolutionized our world.

So, maybe just a few of us have remembered today that it was 25 years ago that the first CD had started rolling off an assembly line from Germany.

As early as 1979, Philips and Sony set up a joint task force of engineers to design the new digital audio disc. Exactly 25 years ago, on August 17, 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world's first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany.

The Philips factory in Germany, where the world's first CD was pressed, belonged to Polygram - the recording company, which Philips owned at the time.

The original target storage capacity for a CD was one hour of audio content, and a disc diameter of 115 mm was sufficient for this, however both parties extended the capacity to 74 minutes to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. In June 1980, the new standard was proposed by Philips and Sony as the "Red Book" containing all the technical specification for all CD and CD-Rom standards.

"When Philips teamed up with Sony to develop the CD, our first target was to win over the world for the CD. We did this by collaborating openly to agree on a new standard. For Philips, this open innovation was a new approach - and it paid off. In the late 70s and early 80s, we never imagined that one day the computing and entertainment industries would also opt for the digital CD for storing the growing volume of data for computer programs and movies." said Piet Kramer, who at the time was a member of the optical group at Philips that made a significant contribution to the CD technology, commented on Philips' and Sony's collaborative work. Over 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide over the past 25 years.

Now the CD’s future is doubted, as people have increasingly started to use devices featuring larger amounts of storage such as DVDs, USB sticks, portable Hard Disks and so on. The Internet is also making everything available, at one click distance.

It is an ironical fact, probably, that the first CDs ever made contained Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony”; who listen to Richard Strauss anymore, who uses CDs anymore?

Anyway, happy birthday, dear compact disc! Although we keep on forgetting, you’ve represented also a big step for the high tech industry…