The Third Time’s a Charm
After the thrashing Sony received in the Financial Times last week for disappointing analysts on the Street, London and Tokyo by missing its third fiscal quarter earnings projections, something needed to be done to shore up the online music business. Chris Deering, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Chairman and Sony Europe President, and Ken Kutaragi, Sony Computer Entertainment Group CEO, charged to the rescue yesterday with a daring yet intriguing plan.
News yesterday that the rave Sony Playstation Portable would have a companion music service launched in Europe and in the US for spring was welcomed as a positive move.
Sony failed to Connect with its online music download service, which was ungraceful and restrictive, or with its first generation FLASH player with its adherance to the use of the proprietary ATRAC formatted songs, but PSP sounds like a winner. It can be used for downloading updates and games, and The Register today hinted at a possible video download service in the offing.
Microsoft had to carry on until Windows 3.1 before they got it right. Could it be that Sony’s attempts to sell music downloads will have a similar fate?
posted by julia b schwerinÂ