Sony Will Launch Online Store to Compete With iTunes

Sony announces it will launch an online store to compete with iTunes and link its products to its digital content.

According to Business Week, Sony plans to launch an online store selling music, movies, and books as well as other downloadable applications for mobile products.

Sony's top executives didn't specify when the Internet store, tentatively called Sony Online Service, would go live or what it would look like. But the online storefront, announced at a management strategy meeting in Tokyo, is likely to bear some similarities to Apple's iTunes store and would be Sony's most ambitious attempt to link its products to its own vast library of digital content.


Analysts believe that Sony must improve its online services and software. "Sony has been too focused on hardware," says Tokai Tokyo Research Center analyst Osamu Hirose. "It has to focus on networked products [and] delivering digital entertainment to consumers."

With losses of $2.6 billion last year and a predicted loss of $674 million this year, Sony is desperately trying to bring back profitability to its TVs and video games. Kazuo Hirai, executive vice-president for networked products and services, said the service would be based on Sony's PlayStation Network. The Web-based gateway for PlayStation 3 has been Sony's most successful push into online commerce so far.

Sony will try to differentiate its service from iTunes. One example: Users will be able to upload videos shot on camcorders, save photos taken with digital cameras, and post other digital content to their personal online accounts. That's how Google's suite of Net-based services (such as YouTube video-sharing and Picasso photo site) works. At some point down the road, Sony would consider letting independent software developers create applications for the service, much the way Apple does for its iPhone.

"The new online service will be one key factor as we introduce new types of mobile products," Hirai said.


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[Sony CEO Howard Stringer]