I think your friend is refering to I-Pod. It is indeed a MP3 player. By adding a card-reader to it, it can become a digital wallet to store photo from SD/CF/MS etc. However, the cost of such combination, i.e. a I-Pod and a card reader, is really expensive. Besides, as i know, the transfer speed, i.e. from the SD/CF/MS through the cardreader to the I-Pod is extremely slow. That is a really big problem as that may consume lot of battary.
There are lot of digitial wallet in the market, from those simple designed of around HK$1,000 to those with lot of other function, such as viewing photos etc. of around HK$4,000. It really depend on what you need and your budget.