MP3-playing devices were mostly pioneered by South Korean startups, who by 2002 would control the majority of global sales. Some players also include radio tuners, voice recording and other features.ĭAPs appeared in the late 1990s following the creation of the MP3 codec in Germany. Generally speaking, they are portable, employing internal or replaceable batteries, equipped with a 3.5 mm headphone jack which can be used for headphones or to connect to a boombox, shelf stereo system, or connect to car audio and home stereos wired or via a wireless connection such as Bluetooth. The PMP term was introduced later for devices that had additional capabilities such as video playback. In contrast, analogue portable audio players play music from non-digital media that use analogue media, such as cassette tapes or vinyl records.ĭigital audio players (DAP) were often marketed as MP3 players even if they also supported other file formats and media types.
The data is typically stored on a compact disc (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Blu-ray Disc (BD), flash memory, microdrive, SD cards or hard drive most earlier PMPs used physical media, but modern players mostly use flash memory. A small DAP: the SanDisk Clip Jam (2010s)Ī portable media player ( PMP) or digital audio player ( DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files.
