MiniDisc

What it was
A miniature, recordable CD contained in a protective plastic case that produced near CD-quality sound -- another design classic from Sony.

Why it lost
Like Betamax before it, MiniDisc is another proprietary Sony product, which meant that it didn't have widespread industry support and only a few manufacturers ever made hardware. CD was also well established by the time MiniDisc arrived, so there was very little interest in pre-recorded MiniDisc music.

Why it should have won
MiniDisc was fantastically versatile. You could buy pre-recorded music on the format or simply use your hi-fi to copy a CD to a blank disc. MiniDisc's hard outer case meant the surface of the disc was far less likely to become scratched and damaged over time.

One of the best things about the format is the size of the players and the media. Initially the hardware was quite bulky, but as time went on, portable player/recorders were developed that were just a little bit larger than a MiniDisc, which made them ideal portable music players.

The single factor that enabled MiniDiscs to be so small was the use of a lossy compression system developed by Sony called ATRAC. On MiniDisc it operated at 292Kbps, which is a considerable saving on the CD rate of 1,411.2Kbps, but music still sounded great. MiniDiscs also contained track information that allowed the player to display the artist name and song title on the built-in display.

Later on, further innovation came with the NetMD range, which allowed you to copy music on your computer to a MiniDisc at high speeds. MP3s would be transcoded in Sony's ATRAC format before being copied over to the MD recorder, and it was possible to use long-play modes to squeeze even more music on to the diminutive discs.

Our fantasy outcome
Captain Tech would need to obliterate CD players across the globe -- and later the iPod -- before MiniDisc could dominate Generation X's music playing. He'd also need to make sure there was a decent catalogue of pre-recorded music on MiniDisc -- including Nirvana, natch -- for people to replace their CDs with.