From The Register’s hardware site: the first commercial MP3 player was introduced in march 1998 by Saehan Information Systems, a South Korean company. The MPMan F10 had 32mb of RAM, a parallel port interface, and a numeric LCD display.
The Register has a photo of a later model, along with Creative’s Rio player. An RIAA lawsuit briefly halted MP3 hardware sales in October 1998.
Apple, of course, released its first iPod in October 2001, and ported iTunes software to Windows in April 2003. When iPods lost their FireWire connections and gained USB, consumer adoption began in earnest.
Ah, the memories. LowEndMac has an early timeline of the iPod for those who are interested.
Tags: Apple, audio, hardware, iPod, Korea, MP3, music, RIAA, USB
