Today Sony Ericsson announced the new W580i slider Walkman phone in Orlando, a day before the official start of the CTIA Wireless show. This quad-band GSM/EDGE handset was designed specifically with the North American market in mind, something of a rare thing at Sony Ericsson these days.

The W580 borrows a few design traits from the W880i that was announced at 3GSM. But even so, the W580i does have few of its own distinctive tricks up its 14mm thick sleeves. Most noteable of which is the curved body section at the bottom of the device that caused the Fast Port power/headset jack to be moved up to the side of the device. Sony Ericsson states that the phone will be available initially in white or gray, both of which will have Walkman orange accents.

As a Walkman phone, the W580i obviously caters to the music lover. The device ships with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro card that can hold just short of 500 songs when filled up by a PC running the included Sony Ericsson Disc2Phone software. A supplied USB cable will let the W580i be used as a USB mass storage device when connected to a personal computer. For those that prefer their music coming over the airwaves, the W580i also sports an RDS compatible FM radio. If, instead, you prefer to have your phone doing the transmitting, the W580's built-in Bluetooth stereo support will allow it to supply tunes to a pair of wireless headphones - not included.

Other features of note in the W580i include the 2" 262k color display, a 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, and a pedometer for keeping track of your workouts. In terms of software, the W580i sports a full RSS news feed reader, 3D Java games, and the Track ID application that lets users identify songs by simply holding their phone up to an audio source - like a car stereo speaker