AfterDawn: News

Sony may launch movie download store

Sony is interested in the market for movie downloads, according to some company officials. Such a service would put Sony in direct competition with Apple Inc.'s iTunes, and would also pit Sony's recently announced new Walkman player against Apple's iPod for video playback. "Music and video downloading has been available through networks, and we are looking into the area as a possible business," said Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida.

Sony struggled to compete with Apple in digital music, watching sales of its Walkman players sink in comparison to constant strong sales for the iPod. Sony's Connect music service also couldn't compete with Apple's iTunes, which has sold over 3 billion legal downloads since it was launched, solidifying its position as the market leader.



Last week, Sony showed off a new video-capable Walkman player that comes with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player 11 that is capable of managing digital libraries. The player can playback both MPEG-4 SP and H.264 video content. The company also announced that its Connect music stores using its failed proprietary ATRAC format would be phased out by March 2008.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Sep 2007 6:10

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• 5 comments

• nobrainer

  can't w8 to see the rootkits and drm bundled with this lot.
  
  you'll probable need a sony operative to come to your house to enter a secret password to be able to watch the film once, then you'll have to purchase it again for the really great, exceptional value of £30 per film and £15 for every time watch there after!
  
  sony value, its never been such a good time to rip ppl off. congrats sony keep up the good work!
  

  Track What Companies Have Edited Wiki http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ (very heavy load atm)

  4.9.2007 06:27 #1

• ChromeMud

  Sony hardware with Microsoft software,who would of thought?Sounds like the making of a great next gen games console to me,if only!
  Just bin the DRM,it's a friggin' mess!

  4.9.2007 11:50 #2

• Unfocused

  It is funny to see how Sony loses sales in the portable music arena. They dominated in the 80's. Everybody either had or really wanted a Walkman because of the quality over cheaper players.

  4.9.2007 14:49 #3

• akaangus

  Holy shit, I knew Sony was stupid, but this is just ridiculous.
  
  I can just imagine their board meeting:
  
  Dumbass Exec 1: "OK so we just shut down our MP3 Music store... why did that fail?"
  Dumbass Exec 2: "Ummm because what we sold only worked on our Walkman devices and everyone owns iPods"
  Dumbass Exec 1: "Shit... so what are we going to do now?"
  Dumbass Exec 3: "How about we open a MOVIE store this time? You know, one that will sell shit that will only work on our Walkmans"
  Dumbass Exec 2: "Well, our MP3 store with the same business model was a total failure and we got laughed at on forums around the world because of our arrogance and stupidity"
  Dumbass Exec 3: "But it's not MP3s, it's movies"
  Dumbass Exec 1 and 2 in unison: "GREAT IDEA! Let's bring it to market"

  4.9.2007 23:02 #4

• borhan9

  I have a feeling this is goin to fail like their recently closed video site.

  10.9.2007 15:28 #5