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Can't Be: MP3 Player Celebrates 10th Anniversary |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
Bidness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 |
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If you can believe it, it's been 10 years since the first commercial MP3 player hit the market. I can't decide whether this makes me feel older or younger. On the one hand, I've been around for enough iterations of the MP3 player to feel like I've been covering this segment of the market for most of my adult life. On the other hand, it seems like just yesterday I was rocking Rush's Caress of Steel on the 8-track player in my 1976 Camaro.
 At any rate, in March, 1998 a wee gizmo called the MPMan F10,
manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems, made its debut at
the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. (While I was in attendance, I must
admit the launch slipped under my radar. I spent much of that show
making nice with old Cold War nemeses.) The prototype F10 measured 91 x
70 x 165.5 mm, slightly larger and heavier than a first-generation
iPod. It contained a generous 32MB of Flash storage, good for maybe
seven or eight songs. The player connected to the PC via old-school
parallel port, and boasted a tiny LCD display for minimal alphanumeric
information.
The F10 went on sale in the U.S. summer of 1998 for around $250, and
was met with popular indifference. Soon after, the Diamond Multimedia
Rio PMP300 hit the market, offering the same essential specs for $200.
For whatever reason, the Rio drew the heavy fire from the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA). Their partnership with the
original MP3.com probably didn't help matters. And thus began the
Digital Music Wars, with the young Anakin Skywalker joining Obi-Wan
Kenobi in their doomed struggle against the nascent Evil Empire. Oops.
Wait a sec. Wrong notes.
Happy Birthday, MP3 player! In other news, Thora Birch turns 26 today. I don't know. Somewhow that seems relevant. For more on celebrities and gadgets, be sure to click over to Tek Swank.
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