Who was the Brains Behind the First Mp3 Player?

For those who are wondering who invented the mp3 player, it is very difficult to tell. But what is known is that the British inventor Kane Kramer was one of the first to create a digital player capable of playing mp3s. The mp3 format itself was developed by Frauhofer-Gesellshaft, a German company. The patent belongs to Ernst Eberlein, Bernd Kurten, Thomas Sporer, Karl-Heinz Brandenburg and Bernhard Grill.

More about the Earliest Mp3 Player – MPMan

The MPMan player was the one created by Kane Kramer back in 1997.

After the MPMan player came out, it proved very popular and others eventually followed in its footsteps. One of the most successful was Diamond Multimedia with its Rio PMP300. The Rio PMP300 became immensely popular that other companies followed suit.

One of the most notable was Compaq’s drive-based digital audio player which came out in 1998. In 2001, Apple would release the iPod, which would go on to become one of the most popular electronic gadgets ever made.

Memory and Sizes

Mp3 players have different features, so their storage capacities and sizes vary. What these devices share is their portability, small enough to fit in your pocket. Today’s mp3 players are capable of storing thousands of songs because their capacities are in the gigabyte range.

Mp3s are usually placed in these devices by connecting it to a computer and copying the files there to the digital player. There are also some mp3 players which are capable of downloading mp3s into the device and play them.

Many of these digital players use flash memory, which is very small, uses little power and allows developers to create players with a long battery life. However, there are also digital players that use hard disks to increase capacity. These can hold more songs than flash memory based mp3 players, but they cost more.

Other Features

These audio players come with small screens that give you some information about the track you are playing, such as its title, artist, length, album, and so on. The same screen also functions as its interface where you can run commands and select various options. All modern mp3 players are now touchscreen, allowing you to tap the screen run commands or make choices. They have powerful earphones and a few even have speakers built in so you can listen without using an earphone.

Media Centers

The vast majority of digital players are now available, and some are not portable but called media centers or digital hubs. They are somewhere between computers and stereo components. Now that wireless network connections are commonplace, digital players and other devices can be used to store mp3 and other media files.

These media centers come with all sorts of audiovisual connections and features and can be easily joined to home entertainment systems. These are not just audio players, but have remote controls, playback controls, TV screens and more. By using these media centers users can access different files simultaneously. In other words, all the files can be placed in these media hubs wirelessly.

Now that you know who invented the mp3 player, you can see how the technology has evolved. Today it is considered as an essential gadget, something that people use every day. These days, audio players are now being merged with smartphones and tablets, and they can also play videos.

Tom is a free lancer writer and content builder of http://www.whoinventedit.net/ and now a days he is doing work on Mp3 Player.