Sony Walkman becomes a smartphone

Sony Ericsson W900

Sony Ericsson unveiled the W900 UMTS handset. It is the first mobile phone to join the Walkman product line. Indeed, the W900 is not only a phone but also a music player. It will allow users to not only manage and play music but also download new tunes from over-the-air music download services (where available) directly to the phone as well as more traditional downloads through a PC. For the latter, Disc2Phone PC software is provided to make the transfer of music from audio CDs or PC music collection to the phone as easy as click-and-drag.

The W900 will come with 470MB of internal memory and capacity can be increased using Sony’s proprietary Memory Sticks.

It also features a swivel design that opens up to reveal a large keypad. It also comes with a 2.2-inch QVGA screen and a 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. The camera can also shoot video at up to 30 fps.

Now that most of us are drooling comes the bad news (for some of us). The W900i is destined for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The W900c is headed to mainland China. Both are expected by the end of the year in either black or white. Fortunately, the W900 will also be joined by two additional Walkman phones, the W600 in the Americas and the W550 in the rest of the world.

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