IAudio

iAUDIO is the brand name for a range of portable media players produced by Korean consumer electronics and software corporation Cowon Systems, Inc. iAUDIO products are best known for their high sound quality, wide file format support and long battery life.

The iAUDIO range consists of players based on both flash memory and hard disk drives. Flash memory-based players are available with a capacity of up to 32 GB, while the hard drive-based models currently have capacities up to 160 GB. The iAUDIO 6 was the first player to use Toshiba's new 4GB 0.85″ hard disk.

Cowon entered the digital audio player market in October 2000 with the introduction of their first MP3 player, the iAUDIO CW100. In March 2001, the iAUDIO CW100s, a revised model, was released.

In December 2001, Cowon released the iAUDIO CW200. The CW200 had audio playback capabilities, an FM radio and voice recording through a built-in microphone. This player also had a revised model, the iAUDIO CW250.

In December 2002, Cowon released the iAUDIO CW300. This model was essentially an iAUDIO CW200 using AA batteries as a power supply. Most reviewers also regarded it as having a higher build quality.

The iAUDIO 4 was introduced December 2003. It came with most of the features that users of the CW200 and CW300 had been missing. Upgrades from previous players came in the form of UMS standard, BBE sound processing effects, line in recording and a 124 colour backlight LED display. This player used the STMP 3420 chipset by Sigmatel.

The iAUDIO M3 was introduced March 2004. The player was Cowon's first DAP with an integrated 1.8-inch (46 mm) hard drive. When the M3 was released there was a lot of controversy about it, because the actual unit had no display. All but a few basic functions had to be controlled via the included remote control. Some people liked this concept, others were not so fond of it.

When the iAUDIO M3 was first released outside of Korea, there was a quality issue with the player's remote control. There was a widespread "fading" issue, in which the text of the remote slowly disappeared. This issue was rectified by the rapid recall of all faulty remotes and free replacements.

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Wikipedia