- Title: CHINA: SONY UNVEILS ITS NEW NETWORK WALKMAN SERIES IN HONG KONG
- Date: 15th March 2005
- Summary: (W2) HONG KONG, CHINA (MARCH 15, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF LAUNCH 0.05 2. VARIOUS OF SONY'S NEW NETWORK WALKMAN PRODUCTS BEING DISPLAYED BY MODELS (5 SHOTS) 0.35 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY KEUNG, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, SONY HONG KONG SAYING: "We're going to launch these two new series of the Network Walkman end of this March, as well as April for this one." 0.48 4. CU: NETWORK WALKMANS 0.53 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY KEUNG, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, SONY HONG KONG SAYING: "This model is the E100 series, we have four colour variations, silver, blue, white, and red, and only using one piece of AAA battery, it can last 70 hours of play back." 1.13 6. CU: KEUNG HOLDING E100 SERIES NETWORK WALKMAN 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY KEUNG, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, SONY HONG KONG SAYING: "This one comes with a three-minute quick charge function. For every three minutes quick charge it will last for three hours playback. And this is also the information we heard back from our customers, that recharging is very important for them. And not only that, with these two models we can play back the Sony ATRA3 model and also playback direct and transfer the MP3 file." 1.51 8. CU: KEIUNG HOLDING NETWORK WALKMAN 1.59 (W2) UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS (RECENT) (REUTERS) 9. VARIOUS PORTABLE AUDIO PRODUCTS BY COMPETITORS CREATIVE AND I-RIVER (6 SHOTS) 2.32 10. VARIOUS OF APPLE'S I-POD (4 SHOTS) 2.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 30th March 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- City:
- Country: Hong Kong
- Reuters ID: LVAC8JVJK9OEV9SCBKSEBPYYKGR6
- Story Text: Sony strikes back at Apple's I-pod with its Network
Walkman series.
Sony finally entered the highly competitive
MP3-player market on Tuesday (March 15) with its latest
Network Walkman series, the NW E100 and E500, which it
unveiled in Hong Kong.
The E-100 series is portable, wireless, tiny and can
store up to one gigabyte of music--it's Sony's answer to
Apple's hugely popular I-pod.
The compact player boasts a 3-minute recharging time
for 3 hours of play, with a luminous display and a
super-long battery life. The new series plays back both MP3
and ATRAC3 music files.
"We're going to launch these two new series of the
Network Walkman end of this March, as well as April for
this one," said Tony Keung for Consumer Electronics, Sony
Hong Kong.
Sony, the creator of the walkman, the original portable
music player, has lagged behind lucrative industry players
such as Apple and I-River in the MP-3 market.
"This model is the E100 series, we have four colour
variations, silver, blue, white, and red, and only using
one piece of AAA battery it can last 70 hours of play
back," added Keung.
The Network Series price starts at US$90 and can go up
to US$200.
Most of the current media players use flash memory chips
to store limited amounts of music, but there will be more
players with higher storage capacity as a result of small
built-in hard disk drives (HDDs), industry experts say.
Analysts say electronics producers stand to benefit from
consumers' willingness to pay more for
"cutting edge" products, which Apple has exploited and
which Sony is targeting with its new line-up of Walkmans.
"This one comes with a three-minute quick charge
function. For every three minutes quick charge it will last
for three hours playback. And this is also the information
we heard back from our customers, that recharging is very
important for them. And not only that, with these two
models we can play back the Sony ATRA3 model and also
playback direct and transfer the MP3 file," explained Keung.
Sales of portable digital music players are set to grow
57 percent this year after more than doubling in 2004,
results of a global survey showed on Tuesday.
Over the next five years, shipments of MP3 music players
will expand to 132 million units in 2005 from 36.8 million
in 2004, market research group iSuppli said.
Sony competitors include iPod and I-River, and
Creative - a worldwide leader in digital entertainment
products for PC users.
Creative, famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards is
now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with
products like MuVo (R) and Zen portable audio players.
Sony, whose Walkman player dominated personal audio
for two decades, could give competitors a run for their
money as well as fuel demand across-the-board with their
new mini series.
Shipments of MP3 players, of which Apple's iPod is the
best known, rose by 116 percent in 2004, according to an
industry survey.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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