<P> British scientist Kane Kramer invented the first digital audio player, which he called the IXI . His 1979 prototypes were capable of approximately one hour of audio playback but did not enter commercial production . His UK patent application was not filed until 1981 and was issued in 1985 in the UK and 1987 in the US . However, in 1988 Kramer's failure to raise the £ 60,000 required to renew the patent meant it entering the public domain, but he still owns the designs . Apple Inc. hired Kramer as a consultant and presented his work as an example of prior art in the field of digital audio players during their litigation with Burst.com almost two decades later . In 2008 Apple acknowledged Kramer as the Inventor of the Digital audio player </P> <P> In 1996 AT&T developed the FlashPAC digital audio player which initially used AT&T Perceptual Audio Coding (PAC) for music compression, but in 1997 switched to AAC . At about the same time AT&T also developed an internal Web based music streaming service that had the ability to download music to FlashPAC . AAC and such music downloading services later formed the foundation for the Apple iPod and iTunes . </P> <P> The first portable MP3 player was launched in 1997 by Saehan Information Systems, which sold its "MPMan" player in Asia in spring 1998 . In mid-1998, the South Korean company licensed the players for North American distribution to Eiger Labs, which rebranded them as the EigerMan F10 and F20 . The flash - based players were available in 32 MB or 64 MB (6 or 12 songs) storage capacity and had a LCD screen to tell the user the song currently playing . </P> <P> The first production - volume portable digital audio player was The Audible Player (also known as MobilePlayer, or Digital Words To Go) from Audible.com available for sale in January 1998, for USD $200 . It only supported playback of digital audio in Audible's proprietary, low - bitrate format which was developed for spoken word recordings . Capacity was limited to 4 MB of internal flash memory, or about 2 hours of play, using a custom rechargeable battery pack . The unit had no display and rudimentary controls . </P>

When was the first portable mp3 player released