In 1982 to 1983, there were some "microfloppy" formats competing to replace the 5¼″ floppy. However, in 1984 Apple choose the Sony 3½″ drives for their Macintosh computer. The Sony format became the de facto microfloppy standard but other formats, including the Hitachi 3″ and the 5¼″ still had plenty of life left in it. In 1987 IBM choose 3½″ in PS/2 PC architecture.
Alan Sugar, sign a deal with the manufacturers of three-inch disk drives to sell him units at a fixed percentage beneath the lowest-priced 3.5-inch drive, he got the cheapest option going for generations of computers. In 1985 a CPC computer appeared with 3" floppy. Towards the end, it was rumoured, Hitachi had to keep a factory going just for Amstrad — it lost money on each drive, but not as much as if it had broken the contractcontract—. 3" format saw its finest hour in the PCW range of CP/M word processors which sold by the million: its passing leaves the world with a legacy of documents.
* CF2 Drive hardware makers: