Over one year after taking over struggling audio equipment maker Aiwa Co., Sony plans to release the card-size Giga pavit HZ-WS2000. Measuring 10.6 millimeters thick and weighing 68 grams, “Making it the world’s thinnest and lightest music player among those with a hard disk drive (HDD)”, Sony said in a news release. Although this is very questionable, as seen in the photo’s the HZ-WS2000 requires a controller type device to operate. Not an ideal design standard in my opinion.

Sony has not set any suggested retail price for the new product but it is expected to sell for about 35,000 yen ($350 USD).

Starting February, Sony will release 13 USB Audio-series products under the Aiwa brand.

Aiwa will also be releasing a sports style Giga pavit HDD player (HZ-DS2000), featuring a heavy duty design and an LCD display on the front of the unit. Aiwa’s sports style HDD player will also utilize a 2GB hard drive for lightweight portability and high-capacity MP3 storage.