The answer to these problems came from Holland. In 1965, the Philips company introduced the compact cassette for consumer audio recording and playback on small portable machines such as the Norelco Carry-Corder 150. Philips intended the cassette to be used for business dictation, and had no idea that it would appeal more to consumers who wanted a simple method to record music. The cassette used 1/8-in. tape with 4-tracks running at 1-7/8 ips, allowing 30 or 45 minutes of stereo music per side, and most importantly, was only 1/4 the size of other cassette systems. Earl "Madman" Muntz in California had become successful putting the 4-track Fidelipac in his cars, and William Lear modified the Muntz player with new small record heads from Nortronic to create the 8-track player in 1964, adopted by RCA and Ford. These players were fine for cars and Learjets, but too large to carry in your pocket. The Philips compact cassette would soon dominate the world market and push the 8-track players into the dustbin of history.
