The Sony Walkman Calls on mobile phone market

2 March 2005 13:49 GMT / By Andy Lynn

Sony's Walkman reached a quarter of a century as long ago as last summer. (see here.) However time and competition marches on, so with an established hold in the mobile phone market, it was only a matter of time before the brand found itself combined with a mobile phone handset.

Enter Sony's W800, which will play back both standard MP3 and Sony's irrepressible AAC music file formats. The supplied memory sticks give the phone a half-gigabyte capacity, allowing the users to store up to 150 music tracks or 10-12 full length CDs. Rather than MusicMatch Jukebox, as seen on its larger players, Disk2phone is the supplied PC Software for converting and transferring tracks to the handset. It weighs around 100g and Bluetooth will be the wireless standard.

Sony hasn't ignored other good features though - with not a little help from its digital camera arm, the W800's camera jumps to 2 Mega Pixels featuring autofocus and sports an active cover for protecting the lens. The W800 can also be connected to a stereo hifi using a converter cable, in addition to the more routine handsfree/in-car connection set for the UK- Being Sony however, it can also link into modern car speakers as well. The phone can be used separately to music playback, though even though it's a Sony, this is expected to be an added strain on battery life.

The only disadvantage may be not just the iPod, but also the fact that prospective buyers may already own either one of Sony's Walkman models or mobile phones already. It's expected that when it's time to upgrade a handset, that this phone will attract interest even if prospective buyers are happy with their existing music player. Either way, Sony has waited a long time to converge the Walkman with a mobile phone, so on the specification side of things, this debut doesn't look bad.