Sony Relaunches Walkman to Challenge iPod

26 years after Walkman created a revolutionary music lifestyle, the new Sony Walkman will now redefine it.

Simply called 'Walkman', the new digital music player from Sony features spectacular ergonomic design and an exciting range of intelligent features that allow the user to enjoy music in a totally new way.

Sony Walkman is a true extension of the user's personal taste and musical preferences. At the press of a button, the 'Artist Link' function will search every artist, album and song stored on the device and offer suggestions of artists and bands closely linked to the genre of music being played at the time.

Sony Walkman, available in two capacity sizes - 20GB (NW-A3000) and 6GB (NW-A1000), also features two new shuffle functions. By selecting 'My Favorite Shuffle', the device automatically selects the most listened to 100 songs and plays them at random. The 'Time Machine Shuffle' function randomly selects a year and plays all of the songs from that particular year that are currently held on the device.

Featuring an advanced organic EL display (2 inches on the 20GB version and 1.5 inches on the 6GB model), Sony Walkman not only incorporates a range of great features, it also offers the ultimate in ease of use through an appealing user interface and fantastic visibility.
Once switched on, a mobile phone style 'Home' menu appears offering nine different options that can be selected via the four-way directional button. These include 'Music Library', 'Play Mode', 'Initial Search', 'Intelligent Shuffle', 'Favorite 100', 'Play History', 'Settings', 'Playlist' and 'Now Playing'.

Music can be searched in a variety of ways, via 'Genre', 'Artist', 'Album', 'Song', 'Release Date', 'Rating' and 'Recently Transferred', all of which can be scrolled through to enable users to find their music faster and easier. Sony Walkman records three years of playback history that can be searched and also features the first ever 'Initial Search' on a hard disc device, allowing the user to scroll from A-Z for ultimate ease of use.

"We are raising the bar with the new Sony Walkman", said Gregory Kukolj, General Manager at Sony Europe. "This stunning new device will be instantly appealing to both style followers and technology-minded individuals alike. One drawn by the spectacular design and the other by the outstanding ease of use and features that really deliver. The new Sony Walkman is an irresistible proposition for users who want the ultimate digital music player."

The 20GB Sony Walkman is available in two stylish colourways, violet and silver; while the 6GB unit comes in the additional colours of pink and blue. All devices package with colour-matched headphones.

The New Walkman will be simultaneously introduced with a whole range of design-matching accessories such as a stylish remote control for easier navigation, various carrying cases, a docking station for convenient connection with the PC as well as a docking speaker system giving the option to both connect to a PC as well as playing music through the speakers.

Sony Walkman features ATRAC3plus and MP3 playback and ships with the new "Connect Player" that offers advanced music library management as well as providing seamless access to the Connect catalogue of more than one million tracks and albums available for download.

"Connect Player" incorporates a new and improved user interface that features a simple 'drag and drop' function for easy transfer from library to player. "Connect Player" supports the new functions within Sony Walkman as well as providing automatic software updates and increased Codec support.

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