Sony planning new online store

Sony is planning a new online store a la Apple's iTunes, but with a few twists.

Announced at a strategy meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, the new service will hawk music, movies, books, and other downloadable content geared for its various electronics, including TVs, mobile phones, music players, and computers.

The service, which Sony aims to launch next year, will link the company's devices and digital content that it produces--setting it apart from other online stores.

"That's the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else," Kazuo Hirai, Sony executive vice president for networked products and services, said in an interview with the Associated Press. "That I think is where our core competence lies, and that's a differentiator for Sony."

Hirai also spoke about the new service with BusinessWeek, saying that it won't just sell products but also tap into social networking by letting people upload their own photos or videos and connect with each other.

"It's not just access content, stream it, and enjoy," Hirai told BusinessWeek. "What are your friends watching right now? There's a screen that says all the programming that's available. It highlights all the things that your friends are watching, for example. It's a community experience."

Called the Sony Online Service for now, it will model itself after the company's successful PlayStation Network, a free service that has captured 33 million registered users who download movies, access social networks, and grab games for the PS3 and portable PSP console. Hirai said that gamers will be able to access the new online service directly through their PlayStation Network accounts.

Of course, Sony has been down this road before in 2005 with its late Sony Connect music service. The aborted iTunes clone was done in by internal politics and a failure to connect with consumers, forcing the company to shut it down in 2007.

But with a new, more cohesive management team put in place by CEO and president Howard Stringer, Sony is hoping to avoid the in-fighting that helped kill Connect.

Sony needs a shot in the arm at this point. Though the company pioneered the portable music concept 30 years ago with its Walkman, it has struggled to compete in the Digital Age. Continuing a string of quarterly losses, Sony took a $292 million net loss in its recent second quarter. Despite cost cuts and layoffs, the company is projecting a total loss of $1.3 billion for the full fiscal year.

[cristate67]

DRM laden crap I'm sure. Why anyone would by anything from sony is beyond me. Death to sony. Now here come the fan boys.

[stiff_kitten]

I guess those three little Billy Goats Gruff should be here any minute. The Troll is here waiting.

[technologyRules]

Apparently the irrational anti-sony people arrived here first for their usual rant, unsubstantiated by any facts.

[cristate67]

And here they are.

[dnscaching]

Got sand in your vagina?

[espeed623]

"And here they are.(..)"<br />...a-standing in a row! Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!"<br /><br />I'm sorry, the Monty Python reference was inevitable.

[addictist]

DOA Sony. Sorry and I do love my PS3, but you guys are 10 years late here. PS - itunes bloatware sux too.

[addictist]

"That's the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else," Kazuo Hirai, Maybe that's because its a bad idea and many of us don't like our music or hardware locked down to any one master Kaz.

[AluminumMonster]

Sorry Sony once again Apple has beaten you to the punch again, well not really the 1st time you had a major advantage, and squandered it within 5 years and now Apple controls the MP3 market. Your 2% of mp3 player owners isnt gonna do jack.

[lil-yankee]

I'm really skeptic as is everybody else.<br />I think sony has all the means necessary to overhaul a comeback, and this might do it, if done right.<br />They have, music studios, movie studios, vaio,walkman,ps3,psp,boombox,bravia,reader,sonyericsson,cybershot, to just mention what im aware of.<br />If they just knew how to seamlessly integrate their hardware with some nice software, i think they are the only ones that can take on apple. Sony is neat with its design and quality, i used to be a sony die hard, but then came drm and the worm and simply their lack of innovation and openness and i moved to the same monster but at least with innovation (apple).

[buddhafw]

This sounds great. Oh wait sony already has an online store called PSN.

[knowles2]

So basically they just going to make the playstation network available on all there devices and to all computers users an not limit it to there playstation 3 and PSP, about bloody time. <br /><br />The only thing that shock me here is that is took them so long to think of the idea an to go through with it, what shocking me more isthat I been thinking of the idea since the PS3 was launch. I been shouting at them to do it for the last 3 years. Glad to hear they finally listen. <br /><br />To all the naysayers, Sony got one advantage that at the top of my head no other company has, it owns the hardware, it owns the content, an it owns it own distribution network in the form of playstation network an crackle an I remember seeing one they built for Bravo televisions. What it lack was link all these seperate pieces together in a single network an single brand. It be a shocker if they do not use the most recognise brand available playstation. <br />Certainly the most interesting thing they done for years an may be a worthy challenger to Itunes. In future I shall be expecting Sony content to have time limited to there own distribution network, which could be a challenge for apple to overcome.