Sony draws on Walkman past for music phone

Technofile: First an apology. For the past three years, the entire media and marketing industry has been telling you to go out and buy an Apple iPod.

In fact, you will be told, they were wrong. They are about to start telling you to ditch the iPod and buy a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, which doubles as a Walkman.

That seems to be the prospect following the introduction this week of the much-hyped W800 phone from the mobile giant. Due to hit the shops in the summer, the W800, which will sell for €200-€300, draws on Sony's illustrious Walkman past, with the logo decorating the edges of the handset.

The first of many Walkman mobile models will offer music playback courtesy of the 512MB Sony Memory Stick Duo. It's not so handy if you prefer other storage media such as SD cards, but that's Sony's perogative.

Sony Ericsson says you will get 15 hours of music playback from the battery, with 30 hours if you play your music with the phone switched off.

This is something of a limitation if, like me, you feel that the point of having a mobile phone is having it switched on.

The Disk2Phone software for transferring files ought to make it easier to transfer music than in the past.

The software even allows you to "rip" CDs to the phone, although whether they will ever be able to match the ease of Apple's iTunes is still in question. It is, however, packed with other features, including a megapixel camera.

But the phone is designed as a music device. Sony says memory will be expandable to up to 2GB, and it even holds an FM radio.

It will also play plain old MP3 files and the new standard AAC files, common to the iTunes music store. However, thoughts of cramming your 10,000 song record collection onto it - like the average iPod can offer these days - will have to be tempered.

Where Sony Ericsson may have an edge is with a new idea that allows you to plug the phone into a TV and show your pictures and videos - and even play music through the hi-fi with a specially adapted cable. It has also introduced a cigarette packet-sized Bluetooth Media Center device to act as a wireless go-between.

Sony is banking that its renowned Walkman mobile music heritage will make the W800 a serious contender in the digital music player market.

But it's not the only kid on the block. This latest offering comes just as Sony's arch rival, Nokia, introduced three new phones for the forthcoming CeBIT technology fair, aimed at the hunger for camera phones and music, joining six new phones in the past two weeks.

In the wings is the iTunes-compatible phone from Motorola, due here this year.

It looks like there's going to be everything to play for in the mobile music market this year.