Chapter 12: Sony Unveils Its Answer to Apple’s iTunes{0}
This article is about Sony’s announcement that they will be opening an online store front, similar to that of the iTunes store, which they will use to sell music, movies, books, applications, and other digitical content. It has been suggested by Sony’s analysts that their best hope for increasing their fortune is to impliment some sort of online, iTunes type of entity to their service line. In order to better help on this journey sony will be putting in efforts to cut costs from many different areas. Sony’s core electionics, televisions and video games, account for more than a quarter of Sony’s annual revenues. The video game division is expected to put up its fourth strait operating loss. The global recession has definately taken a toll on Sony, but with the investment Sony plans to make for its online super store, it hopes to reverse its losses. Sony plans to base their new store on their Playstation Network, which has been Sony’s most successful push into an online market. Launched three years ago, the PSN has 33 million registered users and sells thousands of downloadable games, TV shows, movies, expansions, graphics, and many other types of downloadable content. Last month, Sony signed a deal with Netflix that lets PS3 users stream movies and other content through the gaming console. Sony has plans to make sure that their online store is distinguishable from the iTunes store, and hopes that they will be able to get Playstatoin Network users migrate over to their new store.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2009/gb20091119_588376.htm