Sony to launch iTunes-like online store

Howard Stringer - looking for some synergy from Sony
Howard Stringer - looking for some synergy from Sony

Sony has unveiled plans of a new online store which will bring together all of its digital content.

This web portal is thought to be a place to get ebooks, music, films and videogames which all have a Sony stamp, and direct access to the online store will be made available through myriad Sony products such as TVs and mobile devices.

Much like the PlayStation Network (and sounding a lot like a rival to iTunes) which houses all the PS3's online goodies, the store will offer up a load of downloadable content that will span the company's entire portfolio.

Sony style

Currently being touted around as the Sony Online Service (please let that name just be a place-holder) the new store looks likely to be a place where users can also share their own content, such as the movies they have made and the photographs they've taken on the company's Handycam and Cyber-shot range.

Whether this will actually happen or not remains to be seen, but what it does sound like is that CEO Howard Stringer has bandied around words and phrases like 'synergy' and 'brand consolidation' and this is the company's reply.

Executive Vice President Kazuo Hirai was the one who announced the online service, and when asked about its compatibility with the existing PSN, Hirai said: "There's some debate as to whether all PlayStation Network users would migrate to the new service, we would target quite a few of them."

Just this week, Sony strengthened the PlayStation Network with the addition of downloadable movies to the service.

Via Business Week

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.