I’ll give Sony credit for the industrial design on this one before saying that once again Sony decides to seriously limit their own potential. This beauty only plays ATRAC3, so you can bet no one will buy it other than good little Sony Employees. I guess if Sony could stop their own internal conflicts (no easy task) they might be able to succeed as a content creator and distributor with some very nice players.
The Japanese consumer electronics maker said the 20-gigabyte device, which is its second hard-disk drive gadget aimed at unseating Apple and can store 13,000 songs, will be launched on July 10 in Japan, by mid-August in the United States and in September in Europe.
Dubbed the Network Walkman NW-HD1, it marks a major upgrade to the legendary Walkman brand and the announcement comes on the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Sony’s groundbreaking portable music player — July 1, 1979.
It is expected to sell for around 53,000 yen ($487) in Japan and less than $400 in the United States, Sony said, undercutting Apple’s 40-gigabyte device, which sells for $499 and can hold up to 10,000 songs. [Yahoo! News]