Taking aim at Apple, Sony unveils five new Walkmans

Three new NW-S700F oblong-shaped players, which have in-ear noise reduction earphones to block outside sounds, will go on sale from October 21, followed by two new NW-S600 series models on November 18.

"Ways to enjoy music have been diversifying and changing. This is Sony's best business opportunity," said Kiyoshi Shikano, corporate senior vice president at Sony Marketing Japan Inc, on Thursday.

"We have absolute confidence on the high sound quality, which is Sony's quintessence. We would like to raise our market share in portable music players further from the current 20 percent level in Japan," he told a launch event.

Sony also announced the three new additions to its NetJuke range which allows users to download music to a hi-fi system and save it on a hard drive.

The new Walkmans will allow users to listen to about three hours of music on a three minute charge, and up to 50 hours on a two hour charge.

Sony has increasingly tried to repackage the Walkman as it takes aim at Apple Computer's hit iPod music player, last year for example targeting a younger crowd with a Walkman that looks like jelly beans.

Sony's first Walkman tape cassette players in 1979 revolutionized the way the world listened to music at the start of the music-video era but the iconic Japanese company was taken by surprise by the success of the iPod.

In September last year, Sony's first foreign head Howard Stringer announced a major overhaul of the business including 10,000 job cuts as the company struggles to recover from a profit slump.

Sony announced in January that the Walkman would no longer be made in Japan, shifting production to China and Malaysia.

The NW-S700F models will come in four colours with prices starting at 18,000 yen (151 dollars) while the NW-S600 offers a choice of three colours with a price tag of 15,000 yen and upward.