Sony Prepares Video-Enabled Walkman

Sony Prepares Video-Enabled Walkman

Sony will soon deliver a video-enabled Walkman, a move comes more than a year after Apple released its comparable iPod. The announcement was made by Sony senior vice president

Hiroshi Yoshioka, who pointed to "a product that handles images" without offering a specific release date. Yoshioka also introduced a collection of flash-based players, which will offer a range of colors and storage sizes. Specifically, consumers can grab sizes ranging from 1GB to 4GB, and a total of five colors will be offered.

The flash-based lineup, which also includes noise-cancellation capabilities, will be released by year-end. Sony is constantly tossing new players into the ring, though it has struggled to gain meaningful market traction.

Yoshioka is now driving to double market share, from 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent comments. That will be challenging, especially as the space gets more crowded. On November 14th, Microsoft is launching its Zune, a 30GB, video- and WiFi-enabled player that will be backed by serious marketing dollars.

Mobile manufacturers and carriers are also getting aggressive, a trend that could move into overdrive following the release of an iPod phone, anticipated early next year.