Petteri Pyyny
4 Sep 2003 15:48
Consumer electronics giant Sony announced today that it will launch its own online music service, similiar to those available from Apple and soon from Microsoft.
The service, currently only dubbed as "Net Music Download" will launch in Japan during the upcoming winter and in Europe and in States at next spring. Sony didn't announce any details on pricing or technology, but it will definitely enter into a very crowded market, as virtually all entertainment and Net companies are planning to launch similiar services, inspired by Apple's iTunes' whopping success in the US.
But Sony has several aspects that make it very well-equipped for challenging the existing players in the digital download market. Sony has covered pretty much the whole consumer entertainment market already, has a dominant market share in game consoles, has variety of car and home stereos, portable audio players, PCs, PDAs, etc and also owns one of the world's largest record labels, Sony Music. This unique position might put the company in a position where it can compete pretty well against the IT companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.com.
Source: AtNewYork.com