Computer retail chain PC World is dropping floppy disks from sale due to plummeting demand.

PC World will no longer stock the computer storage devices once its existing supplies have been sold.

The fast-moving world of technology has made floppy disks virtually redundant just 36 years after they were invented, the chain said.

They have been replaced by CDs, memory cards, and by USB memory sticks which have up to 1,000 times as much storage capacity.

Some 98 per cent of PCs and laptops sold by PC World no longer have in-built floppy disk drives, with that figure expected to hit 100 per cent by the summer.

PC World commercial director Bryan Magrath said the "relentless" pace of technological change had left floppy disks unable to compete.

"The sound of a computer’s floppy disk drive will be as closely associated with 20th century computing as the sound of a computer dialling in to the internet," he said.

According to the chain, the heyday of the 3.5in disks was in 1998 when around 2 billion were sold globally.