SONY is zeroing in on sound quality and karaoke-like lyric displays to woo consumers in the Japanese market, its stronghold in digital music players, amid a battering elsewhere from United States rival Apple Inc's iPod.

Hisatsugu Nakamuta, the Sony Corp general manager overseeing marketing, said yesterday the Japanese electronics and entertainment company is hoping to grab as much as half of Japan's annual 6.5 million unit portable audio player market with its new Walkman models.

He pointed to an internal survey that found 32.4 percent of Japanese teens say they chose the Walkman over other products because it displays synchronized lyrics as the song is played.

In the souped-up version of the feature, which is unique to Japanese models, the words pop up more prominently in the center of the tiny display. Click on a button, and the singer's voice gets muted for an instant on-the-go karaoke effect.

'The Walkman is always aiming to deliver new musical experiences to customers," Nakamuta said.