UPDATED (comments on ATRAC3 usage fron Sony): Sony bringing new portable audio players to market

Sony, fighting to keep market share in the oversaturated digital audio players market, introduced three new players last night which they have high expectations of success for.

The first player, and the one gaining the most noise right now as a possible iPod killer, is the NW-HD1 Network Walkman (pictured at right). The NW-HD1 has a 20GB hard drive, which can store up to 13,000 music files, and is smaller then many other 20GB devices. It offers a battery which will give up to 30 hours of play on one charge and has shock protection for uninterrupted playback for those times when the player is bumped.

THe NW-HD1 will support music files which are coded with Sony's ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ formats. Other popular file formats like MP3, WAV and WMA can be played as well, but will have to go through a one-step conversion to ATRAC3 first, which happens via the bundled SonicStage software as the music is transferred to the player.

Another interesting thing to note about the NW-HD1 is the price - under $400. That's not a bad deal. Release date is mid-August

Also out of the Network Walkman brand line is the key-chain friendly NW-E75 flash player. It as 256MB (170 songs approximately) and gets 70 hours of play on one AAA battery. It will be available later this month for around $200.

Sony also announced they are releasing a player under their VAIO computer products brand. The VAIO Pocket, which will be priced at around $500 and debuting in September, has a 40GB hard drive (26,000 songs) and sports a 2.2-inch color LCD for displaying photos and the like. You will also be able to use the Pocket as a storage device for your USB compatible digital camera with a file transfer option. Battery life on a single charge is around 20 hours.

[Guide's Note: After reading commentary from others around the Web about Sony's use of ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ instead of MP3s and the like, I sought comment from Sony. A spokeswoman told me they chose to use ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ because it offers better compression than other formats, which allows for higher quality music without degradation in sound. She also said it is more efficient for your battery, allowing longer playback times.]