History, most do not know. My Mother worked on Skylab in the 1970's.
Through Fairchild. Her exposure to technology would expose me to it at a very early age.

Mavica, and Voyager 1.
Actually have allot in Common:

Mavica, and Voyager 1.
Actually have allot in common. Voyager-1 launched in 1977. set the foundation for
line by line, and was a significant advancement. The Vidicon, camera technology would help set the path for the Mavica line of camera.
To place the different, in 1973 SkyLab, was using film canisters, which had to return to earth to be developed. The Voyager allow photos to be sent, using data transmissions, one can see the development, the first Mavica protypes would be less then ten years later. And eventually consumer grade FF5 Mavica Camera release.
Sony held the line, in simplicity allowing technology to be used that was widely available. Like Voyager, were a metal record was made to share human technology with those that might find the Voyager in the future the record was simple technology. Mavica using the standard consumer floppy drive, made the camera future proof for nearly 30 year now. Only recently has the production of wide spready floppies stopped. However at its peak in the 1990's over 5 billion floppies were made each year. And it is estimated that old new stock is still out there.
Floppy disk are made to last 10-30 year depending on quality and storage.
That means that if the Mavica camera works, there could be still a large supply of floppy disks for another 15 years and then may become more rara
Some Mavic's take memory sticks and there are other options.
That said, it estimated that the Mavica Floppy cameras, will out live the CD versions. For the fact cd's are not that common in the size used. And mass quantities do not exist in old new stock. They are no longer being produced and were only produced for a shorter time.
For some reason resale of CD versions are still comparable priced.
But it does appear the floppy version will out last the CD, only because old new stock CDs are slowly running out. Where Floppy's are still used and were mass produced for nearly 40 years.
I have over 600 floppies. 1/2 are sealed old stock.
And near 80% of the floppies when grabbed to use are working well.
Allot has to do as well, is the camera, and how well its kept as well as dust and dirt. But parts do wear out.

Mavic's were high priced from 500.00 to 1200.00 in the 1990's was like 1800-2300.00 today. Now can be had for under 50.00 depending on models and conditions.
I would guess that Mavic's will still be used 30 years from now. And maybe another 50-75 years. But like older cameras today care and condition matter.
I created a buyers guide on this site to help those wanting one to find good ones.

I think the Mavica will remain under 100.00 for the next 10 years.
Once CD's run out, the floppies will remain and then be desired.
Sony was brilliant, as it seems intentional that used a medium that was
used prior and well past its design.
The one flaw I see in Mavicas, is the floppy drive is not a standard floppy drive.
Mavica floppy drives are 4x faster then most that come with PC's.
Some have removed parts and repaired Mavica drives with PC drives.

The drive is a Sony MPF88E   and should not be confused with laptops or usb.
I have yet to try other models and these are hard to find. But often times can be salvaged from other Mavicas.

http://www.mavicas.com