According to the BBC on March 10, Dutch engineer Lou Ottens, known as the father of cassette tapes, died at the age of 94. His family announced on the 9th that the engineer died last weekend in his hometown of Duizel.
Dutch local newspaper NRC Handelsblad said Lou Ottens died on March 6.
According to the BBC, an estimated 100 billion cassettes have been sold worldwide since its inception in the 1960s. Lou Ottens's invention changed the way people listen to music, and in recent years there has even been a renaissance of cassettes.
In 1960, Lou Ottens became head of Philips' product development department, where his team developed cassettes. In 1963, the cassette was unveiled at the Berlin Radio and soon became a global success. Lou Ottens also reached patent agreements with Philips and Sony.
Lou Ottens later became involved in cd development and now has more than 200 billion CDs sold worldwide. In 1982, after Philips launched a CD player, Lou Ottens said, "From now on, traditional recording players are going to be obsolete." Lou Ottens retired four years later.
Asked about his career, Lou Ottens once said his biggest regret was that "it wasn't Philips that made the iconic Walkman, it was Sony."