10 inch portable DVD players were the first devices on the market that allowed people to enjoy their favorite movies and on the go, wherever they happened to be. These players could be easily carried along, and were just a little bit bigger than the portable CD players that were already in widespread use at the time. Even smaller 7 inch portable DVD players exist. Being so small, 10 inch portable DVD players were quickly adopted, especially since prices had started out fairly low. The first Christmas season of their debut had many retail outlets reporting first-day sell-outs, and interest has remained steady enough to spur the development of newer and better models.

This kind of affordability ensures popularity, and soon 10 inch portable DVD players could be found in, of all places, the New York City subway system. This was a strange place for 10 inch DVD players because the subways could be very dangerous, especially for electronics and other high-value commodities. In fact, the public announcement system often reminds rides to "not display cell phones or any other electronic items" for reasons of personal (and personal property) security. Yet it is precisely due to the relatively low prices of 10 inch DVD players that make them so safe to be openly used in the subways, and nowadays one can easily find good quality models for thirty dollars or so - about the same as a low-end standalone player!

And indeed, many of these portable DVD players can actually double as a standalone. They can plug directly into a TV set and function just as well as any other DVD playback device, only perhaps with slightly fewer features, depending on the exact models involved.

But for all their popularity in the New York City subway system, there is no question that portable players are much, much more popular in Asia, especially gadget-crazy Japan and Korea, land of the world's most famous consumer electronics brands. These countries are also among the very first to adopt most any new technology or format, such as Blu-ray Disc, for instance - speaking of which, one wonders how long it will be before the market sees a portable Blu-ray player! And looking ahead, one wonders about the future of DVD portability, what with improvements in solid-state memory and so forth. Indeed, portable DVD players have gotten even smaller since the advent of 10-inch units, and 3.5-inch DVDs are now available as recordable media for high-definition digital camcorders.