Sony was dealing with flash-based recorders already but in the higher price category - now times are changed and their new baby, PCM-D50, showed in AES these days has a price that is much closer to the M-Audio/Edirol/Zoom category. You have to pay 600 USD to own this product which reords 24/96 quality at its best, has 4 gigabyte internal memory which is expandable with standard Memory Stick cards. It is boxed with aluminium, and runs on standard AA batteries - communicates via USB, and has some extra features like digital pitch control, limiter, and low-cut filter. You can buy even a remote controller accessory! Here are the very detailed sheets.