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Collection

2012/32/1 Digital media player, Rio PMP300, with accessories, documentation and packaging, plastic / paper / electronic components, designed by Diamond Multimedia Inc, San Jose, California, United States of America, made in Taiwan, 1998. Click to enlarge.
  • Image 1 of 2, 2012/32/1 Digital media player, Rio PMP300, with accessories, documentation and packaging, plastic / paper / electronic components, designed by Diamond Multimedia Inc, San Jose, California, United States of America, made in Taiwan, 1998. Click to enlarge
  • Image 2 of 2, 2012/32/1 Digital media player, Rio PMP300, with accessories, documentation and packaging, plastic / paper / electronic components, designed by Diamond Multimedia Inc, San Jose, California, United States of America, made in Taiwan, 1998. Click to enlarge

Diamond Rio PMP300 32MB digital media player

Designed
The Diamond Rio was one of the earliest portable digital media devices - released in late 1998 it sold extremely well and put the MP3 firmly on the map. So much so that some members of the record industry attempted to sue Diamond claiming the PMP300 encouraged music piracy.

The Diamond Rio player was one of the products that Apple executives examined while they considered a foray into the digital media player market. Although they were quick to fault its lack of user friendliness and capacity (Jobs said it "truly sucked") - an echo of its wheel shaped control panel can be seen in the iPod classic of 2001.

Campbell Bickerstaff, 2012

Summary

Object No.

2012/32/1

Object Statement

Digital media player, Rio PMP300, with accessories, documentation and packaging, plastic / paper / electronic components, designed by Diamond Multimedia Inc, San Jose, California, United States of America, made in Taiwan, 1998

Physical Description

A portable digital media player for MP3 files with original cables and other accessories, instructions and packaging. It is rectangular in shape and is cased in a navy coloured plastic unit with a tuning dial at the base and a small LED screen at the top.

Marks

'Diamond' manufacturers logo and 'Rio PMP300' appear on front of unit.

Short URL

https://ma.as/433545

Dimensions

Height

92 mm

Width

66 mm

Depth

20 mm

Production

Designed

Made

Notes

Designed by Diamond Multimedia Inc in San Jose, California, USA, made in Taiwan in 1998.
The Rio PMP300 was one of the first consumer MP3 players. Used for downloading MP3 files from computer (software on discs included) to play through headphones or connect to other amplifiers. It can hold 32MB.

History

Notes

The first portable digital media player appeared earlier in 1998 (the Eiger Labs MPMan F10) and was quickly followed into the market by the Diamond Rio two months later. The MP3 file format had been around for a while (approved as a committee draft of ISO/IEC standard in 1991, finalised in 1992 and published in 1993) and was rapidly gaining popularity on the World Wide Web through legitimate digital music distribution sites, closely followed by illegitimate peer to peer music swap sites (such as Napster in 1999 - 2001).

Source

Credit Line

Purchased 2012

Acquisition Date

19 March 2012

Cite this Object

Harvard

Diamond Rio PMP300 32MB digital media player 2021, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 16 April 2021, <https://ma.as/433545>

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://ma.as/433545 |title=Diamond Rio PMP300 32MB digital media player |author=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences |access-date=16 April 2021 |publisher=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Australia}}

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