One of the very first discmans available, a D121.

A Philips portable CD player disassembled.

One of the latest portable cd players available, with MP3 and ATRAC capabilities.

A portable CD player is a portable audio player used to play Compact Discs.

[edit] History

Portable Compact Disc Players were first introduced in the 1980s. Companies introduced Electronic Skip Protection in 1993 to minimize audio skipping.

Features

The basic features to a portable CD player are:

• Play/Pause
• Stop
• Rewind
• Fast-Forward
• Hold (Some models)
• Liquid crystal display
• Headphones

Some CD players also have anti-shake protection, MP3 capabilities and CD-R/CD-RW capabilities.

[edit] Competition

Portable CD players have been predominant for years, and have boosted many electronic companies' success, namely Sony's. But since digital audio players were introduced, the popularity of CD players has decreased. CD players are still being made, but many newer players have MP3, WMA, and CD-R capabilities to keep sales up. Thinness is also a big factor. Models are getting thinner and smaller with each revision. As adding more seconds of anti-skip memory is expensive, MP3 players are a preferred choice for environments where physical shock persists (e.g. off-road, jogging, etc.).

Despite the phaseout of portable CD players verses digital audio players, they have still remained profitable through the late 2000s. [1]

[edit] See also

• CD player
• Portable DVD Player

Reference: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Electronic_Skip_Protection_-_History/id/5017343 History/id/5017343http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/1-2/h1.html