boosting their popularity, and within a year and a half had become profitable. Early production units of the D-50/D-5 did not carry the Discman brand and were instead referred to as "CD Compact Player". The Discman brand was applied later because of the unit's portability and similarity to the cassette Walkman. This brand name was used for Sony's portable CD players until 2000. Impact The release of the D-50/D-5 sparked public interest in CDs as an audio format, and in the audio industry in general. A portable CD market was created and the price of competing CD players from other manufacturers dropped. The CD industry experienced sudden growth, with the number of CD titles available dramatically increasing. Variants ATRAC CD Walkman The ATRAC CD Walkman played ATRAC CDs in addition to audio CDs. The ATRAC CD contained audio encoded in ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus. Most if not all models also played MP3s. The D-NE1 from 2003 was one of the earliest models. Video CD Discman Video CD Discman, later rebranded as VCD Walkman, was a line of portable Video CD players. They were able to output the audio from video CDs as usual, but were also equipped with an additional 3.5mm audio/video-to-RCA connector output. Others Intelligent Discman was a line of Discman players that played CD-i format discs. CD-ROM Discman: Both Sony and Panasonic released portable CD players with a PCMCIA card connector for use as an external CD-ROM drive on a computer, though with a lower speed than dedicated computer drives. DVD Discman, later rebranded as DVD Walkman, was a line of portable DVD players. Gallery Sony D-50/D-5 See also Sony Data Discman Sony Walkman References Notes Sources External links - Reference site containing details and pictures of various Discman and Walkman models. Sony products Consumer electronics brands Japanese inventions Portable audio players Products introduced in 1984 Walkman