Panasonic in Japan has announced [JP] a new stereo system today, the D-Dock SC-HC40. The device is just 69mm thick at the thinnest part but integrates a speaker plus digital amplifier (20W×2ch(6Ω)), a CD player, an AM/FM tuner, an SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot, and a “sliding door” (Panasonic).

Open the “door” to find a dock in which you can put your iPhone or iPod, which you can then control remotely (Panasonic calls this “Direct Docking”). You can also take your Apple player into your hand, choose what you want to hear and listen to the music through the D-Dock speaker. The device supports the iPhone 3G and 3GS plus the iPod, iPod classic, touch, nano, and mini (various generations).

The SC-HC40 features Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and needless to say, comes with a remote control. Play music (or videos) from your Apple devices from your couch or choose tracks directly from your SD cards (in AAC, WMA, MP3 formats). It’s also possible to copy music from the radio or your CD player onto SD cards without a computer (this won’t work with music stored on your iPhone/iPod).

Panasonic plans to start selling the D-Dock SC-HC40 in Japan on March 12 for $420. I don’t think this pretty neat system will ever find its way out of Japan though.