When it first became possible to listen to recorded music, the notion of being able to do so on the move probably seemed a little ridiculous. Though the transition from the type of music appreciation that necessitated the presence of the performers in the same room as the listeners to that which required only a gramophone to enjoy must have been a strange one, music remained, back then, a form of entertainment. And while there is little doubt that the music we listen to today brings us enormous pleasure, it has adopted a new position in our lives. Music is now the accompaniment to our lives, following us from home to office to store. And with the technical innovations of recent years, we can now take it with us to all the places in between.
Portable music first became available to the masses with the mass marketing of the cassette tape Walkman. This allowed consumers take their favorite music with them when they went about their daily business, and quickly became a huge success. It is, in fact, the consumer enthusiasm for music in general that has spurred on the technological advancements that have created portable music systems that are better than ever before. And...