A portable media player (PMP), mobile digital media player (M-DMP) or digital audio player (DAP), is a portable digital consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored on a CD/DVD, flash memory, microdrive, or hard drive. In contrast, analog portable audio players play music from non-digital media such as cassette tapes, or records. Often mobile digital audio players are marketed and sold as “portable MP3 players”, even if they also support other file formats and media types. Other types of electronic devices which can also act as a like mobile digital media player, but only have those media playback features as a secondary function, are Mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, and sometimes even digital cameras are referred as portable media players because of their playback capabilities. Even though most of the Flash-based and Hard drive-based media players are no longer in production, some like Apple iPod and Sony Walkman are still being produced. However portable CD/DVD players are still manufactured by brands across the world. This article focuses on portable devices that have the main function of playing media.
