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.
Apple now has the support of a USB industry standards group in its battle to keep the Palm Pre from using the iTunes music service.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) said in a statement Tuesday that Apple can block the Pre from connecting to iTunes. The group issued a letter to both companies warning Palm that further attempts to use iTunes would violate the group's policy.
The voice of the USB-IF is strong in this case since the group is responsible for issuing Apple the hardware vendor ID that lets its devices connect to iTunes via USB. Palm has used this process to its advantage by simulating the same ID for the Palm Pre, tricking iTunes into thinking the Pre is an Apple device.
That scheme worked until the recent release of iTunes 9, which broke the Pre's access, prompting Palm to complain to the USB-IF that the vendor ID blocks competitors.
But the group supported Apple's stance and cautioned Palm by letter that any further attempts to use the code would be a violation of its rules.
In its initial complaint, Palm told the USB-IF that the latest update of its WebOS would restore iTunes functionality to the Pre. In response, the USB-IF quoted policy and reminded Palm that it may use only its own issued vendor IDs, not those of any other company. The group asked Palm to clarify its intentions within seven days.
Palm and Apple were not immediately available for comment.
Even before the Palm Pre was released in June, people discovered that the device could connect to iTunes. Since then, Palm and Apple have fought a tug-of-war over iTunes access. Apple has issued various iTunes updates to block non-Apple devices, triggering Palm to find a way past them. Despite not-so-subtle warnings from Apple, Palm has remained persistent.
Android, Google's highly anticipated mobile phone software set to launch Tuesday, and Apple's iPhone have often been mentioned in the same breath, for features they may--or may not--have in common.
Add one more feature to the list, if a VentureBeat source is right: Amazon is said to have an iTunes-like application for Android. VentureBeat says it got a tip that an HTC phone running Android was spotted in a bar in the San Francisco Bay Area over the weekend and that it had such an Amazon application on it.
But, according to VentureBeat, the source said he believes there will be a key difference:
One thing you cannot yet do through the mobile iTunes store...is buy/rent movies or any other form of video. Our source believes that Amazon's app will allow for that.
The blog goes on to say that Amazon's store on Android is likely to be a mobile version of its MP3 online store.
Apple has released version 2.1 of its iPhone software, promising a wealth of bug fixes for a pioneering device that suffered a number of problems.
Chief Executive Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone update in a speech Tuesday during a launch event for next-generation iPod music players, saying, "This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs."
The company's software update page shows just how big:
- Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
- Significantly better battery life for most users
- Dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes
- Improved e-mail reliability, notably fetching e-mail from POP and Exchange accounts
- Faster installation of third-party applications
- Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third-party applications
- Improved performance in text messaging
- Faster loading and searching of contacts
- Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
- Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
- Option to wipe data after 10 failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation
The page also instructs iPhone users to use the latest version of iTunes to perform the update. So beware, Windows Vista users.
The iPhone 3G has generally won acclaim for its design and the range of third-party applications that now can run on the device, though some miss features such as copy-and-paste and voice-command dialing. However, network connectivity troubles and other issues have tarnished the iPhone 3G's debut.
On Thursday morning, in coordination with the iPhone 3G's first worldwide release in New Zealand, Apple launched its latest version of iTunes. Now available on the 7.7 version are more than 500 different third-party applications for your new iPhone 3G.
Ranging in price from free to a couple bucks a pop, some sound pretty great, some sound downright pointless. Who's going to pay a buck to turn your iPhone screen into a flashlight? On Thursday's edition of the Daily Debrief, I chat with Webware.com's Josh Lowensohn about these initial offerings.
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