Sony have announced their newest MP3 player, which for the first time will also support Windows Media Audio (WMA).
Chips Pang, product manager of personal audio at Sony Australia said, “Australians will be among the first in the world to be able to get their hands on the impressive Walkman companion. This Walkman will be an extremely hot summer music accessory, appealing to trendsetters and technology-minded individuals alike.
The player will be available in the next few days, and shortly after Sony will make a firmware update available which will enable the NW-A1000 to support non-DRM WMA files natively. This follows Sony’s own NW-HD3, which this year became Sony’s first hard-drive player to support MP3 natively.
The player features an organic electo-lumiscent display, enhanced navigation and playback features like “My Favourite Shuffle”, and a battery life of 20 hours.
The NW-A1000 was launched in Japan in early September, and is finally available here. But how long will it last? The HD5 only had a shipping life of three months, from June to September, and there have been three different MP3 players in the HD range in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, the Sony NWA3000 is a 20GB player version of the A1000, is already available overseas.
Sony spokesperson Lesley White said larger capacities may be announced soon: “There’s a lot of space for a higher capacity player but we wanted to get the A series out before Christmas.”
The NW-A1000 is available for an RRP of $379.
