
Many of these are available in the micro format – for instance, iPod mini and Zen Micro.Some of the most popular brands of MP3 player are iPod, Philips, Zen and Archos.Multimedia players: larger and heavier, but allow the user to watch movies usually have a large colour screen.Hard-drive players: much larger capacity, holding thousands of tracks, but their rechargeable batteries can’t be replaced.Micro hard-drive players: smaller than hard drive players but more portable.

Memory flash players: small, easy to use and relatively inexpensive, ideal for joggers but have a limited storage capacity.It has since become the most popular MP3 player in the world, although it actually converts MP3 files into its own file format. The first MP3 player was produced in Korea in 1998.The MP3 project began in 1977 in Germany, and the patent for its use was finally granted in 1989.Music is easily stored and managed on the MP3 player, including skipping tracks or, on some models, arranging playlists.MP3 players allow the user to play music, podcasts and so on anywhere.MP3s can be listened to with earphones or headphones, or played through speakers via an external amplifier – for example, a 'dock' with speakers or through a stereo system.MP3s usually contain music, but the format is also used for general audio files such as audiobooks and podcasts.Contains a miniature hard disk drive, which can store huge quantities of data.A player stores these files on a memory chip so that you can play it back at your leisure. 'MP3' is the abbreviation for 'MPEG Audio Layer III' ('MPEG' stands for 'Motion Pictures Expert Group').
