Sony is unveiling its competitor to the newly-launched iPod Shuffle, the flash-based music player from Apple. Its new players will hold around the same number of songs - 250 or so - but Sony claims they have a much longer battery life than their competitor.
The electronics giant claimed its players would run for up to 50 hours on a single charge, against the iPod Shuffle"s 12. They hold up to 1GB of music and have a small screen, unlike the Shuffle; the new devices are to retail in the US at between $150 and $180 depending on the size of memory chosen.
Sony told BBC News it had to recover ground in the digital music player market. Kelly Davis, the company"s product manager for digital players, said: "We know we"ve been behind a bit, but we definitely want to be a strong contender in 2005."