It may seem like they’ve been around forever, but the MP3 player is only 10 years old – and its birthday is this month. Launched in at CeBIT in March 1998, the MPMan F10 was the first commercially available personal MP3 player and the $250 has a mere 32Mb of memory – enough for around eight tracks – though this could be upgraded to 64Mb by the manufacturer.

Made by Saehan Information Systems in Korea, the 91 x 70 x 165.5mm device had a tiny LCD screen and connected to a PC via the parallel port, and it went on sale in Europe that summer. It didn’t make too big a splash in the UK, though – the MP3 love was reserved for the Diamond Rio PMP300, released in September 1998.

This 32Mb player bears a clear resemblance to the MP3 players of today, and along with the MP3 format itself, spelled doom for MiniDisc and its portable players – as the user comments on its Amazon page illustrate (here's the F10 page, too):

Unlike many of the other Minidisc owners on here, I happen to like MP3. The minidisks are great....but for something small and light to tuck in my pocket, nothing beats the Rio! It's at least half the size and a third the weight of my minidisk player. And yes, the size DOES make a difference to many people.

[via The Register]

Photos courtesy of tuexperto @ Flicker

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