Portable CD player

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

History

Portable Compact Disc Players were first introduced in the 1980s, but weren't predominant until the 1990s. At first, most people thought of personal CD players to be no more portable than a cassette player. Also, since they had no anti-shake feature, they couldn't really be used in a portable manner. However, when companies introduced Electronic Skip Protection in around 1993 to minimize the CD skipping associated with active use, the portable CD player truly became portable. After that refinement, most people used CD players rather than cassette players.

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.

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.).

See also

*CD player
*Portable DVD Player