Digital Audio Aims for Mass Market
Ten thousand songs in your pocket. Millions of tunes on the Internet at your fingertips. And books on tape -- they're going down the path of vinyl records. Welcome to the new world of digital audio.
Though the first portable MP3 player debuted in 1999, most personal music libraries still consist of piles of CDs, and relatively few people listen to digitally recorded radio talk shows and books.
The consumer electronics industry is doing its best to change that, there being serious lucre in prodding people to join the digital audio revolution as long as it's convenient.
At this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, it was impossible to walk more than a few feet in the 1.5-million-square feet of exhibition space without stumbling over a digital audio equipment display.
New products in the category included a music system from upstart Sonos Inc., which lets you play your music all over your home, even different songs in different rooms, and control it all wirelessly from a handheld device.
The Thomson RCA five-disc CD player can automatically convert songs to a compressed digital file format, a process commonly known as ripping, and transfer them onto to a portable MP3 flash player -- all without the usual intervention of a computer.
"As long as this market is dependent on a PC for obtaining content, it'll remain a niche market in our view," said Rich Phipps, a Thomson executive.
By MAY WONG and RACHEL KONRAD,
AP Technology Writers
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