Portable CD player
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Compact Disc player . (Discuss) |
A portable CD player is a portable audio player used to play Compact Discs.
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[edit] History
Portable CD players were first introduced in the 1980s, but weren't predominant until the 1990s when anti-skip players were sold. At first, most people thought of personal CD players to be no more portable than a cassette player. Also, since it had no anti-skip feature, they couldn't be used in a portable manner. But in the early 1990s, companies introduced shock absorption to minimize the skipping, which while making them useless for heavy activities, allowed them to be portable. After that refinement, most people used CD players rather than cassette players. Then in 1997, Electronic Skip Protection was used on portable CD players to make it possible for heavy activity use.
[edit] 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-skip protection, MP3 capabilities and CD-R/CD-RW capabilities.
[edit] Competition
Portable CD players have been predominant for years, and have boosted many electronic company's success, namely Sony's. But since digital audio players were introduced, CD player's popularity decreased. CD players are still being made, however, but now many have MP3, WMA, and CD-R capabilities to keep sales up. Thinness is also a big factor, 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.).
