Kane Kramer

In 1981 Kramer filed for a UK patent for his newly conceived digital audio player, the IXI. UK patent 2115996 was issued in 1985, and U.S. patent 4,667,088 was issued in 1987. The player was the size of a credit card with a small LCD screen and navigation and volume buttons and would have held data of at least 8 MB of solid-state bubble memory chip with a capacity of 3½ minutes' worth of audio. Plans were made for a 10-minute stereo memory card and the system was at one time fitted with a hard drive enabling over an hour of recorded digital music. His first investor was Sir Paul McCartney. Later, Kramer set up a company to promote IXI and five working prototypes were produced with 16-bit sampling at 44.1 kilohertz with the pre-production prototype being unveiled at the APRS Audio/Visual trade exhibition in October 1986. In a 2004 interview with The Guardian, Kramer stated that the company at the time had "orders worth £60 million" (value at current day) for the device from the recording industry.^[2] However, in 1988 a boardroom dispute within Kramer's company and the subsequent failure to raise the £60,000 required to renew the patent resulted in the patent lapsing and entering the public domain, though Kramer is still the owner of the designs.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Kramer was called as a witness by Apple Inc. to defend itself from charges of patent infringement for its iPod digital audio player.^[3][4]