Sony Adds MP3 to Hard Drive Walkman
Sony Europe has announced another version of its hard drive based Walkman, the company's third attempt to break into a market dominated by Apple's iPod.
The 20GB NW-HD3 will feature support for both ATRAC, Sony's proprietary format, and MP3. Previous versions of the player could not play the MP3 format out of the box. As previously reported by BetaNews, Sony made its first foray into MP3 with its flash memory based Walkman models back in October.
Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research senior analyst sees the announcement as a smart move. "Sony has done right by supporting MP3 on its newer devices, rather than compelling ATRAC conversion," Wilcox told BetaNews in an earlier interview. Many believe the company is repositioning itself to make a run at the iPod, which dominates the hard drive based segment of the market.
Sony is touting 30-hour playback times, and advanced impact resistance technology dubbed "G-Sensor" with the new Walkman. The NW-HD3 also takes a page from Apple's iPod mini, featuring five color variations to appeal to "fashion-conscious" music lovers.
Sony additionally announced it will offer a firmware upgrade to HD1 and HD2 owners wishing to play MP3s. However, owners will need to send their players to a Sony Service Center and pay a $20 fee for the upgrade.
The NW-HD3 will officially launch in Europe and Japan over the next month at a price of $410 USD ($470 USD in the UK). At this time, no official announcement has been made on whether Sony intends to sell the product in the United States.