Sony is planning to compete with one of the music giants, Apple. The company has launched its very own online music service known as Connect. Sony is imitating Apple in one of the major limiting ways. Sony music store will only allow users to play the songs in the company's portable audio players just like Apple is doing with its iTunes and iPod combo.
Sony's portable audio players will not be hard drive based. In fact, Sony is on a full campaign to promote its unsuccessful MiniDisc players that were launched three years ago. The format itself is 13 years old according to online reports.
This doesn't seem like a competitive move from Sony, according to many industry analysts. Analysts said, this format and the MiniDisc music players are not the hype anymore. More and more consumers are working their way up towards the latest generation hard drive players.
Many retailers have reported the high increase in sales when Sony allowed the users to record music on to the discs, which was two years ago. Sony plans to make the MiniDisc format and the players as affordable as possible by launching the next generation MiniDisc players that will more capacity at lower prices. Sony plans to beat its competitors with this strategy. The new players are expected to arrive sometime in June of this year.
The songs will also work on portable CD players and Walkmans, according to Sony, one of the largest multimedia companies.
According to company stats, it has sold around 2.5 million Connect-compatible devices. It has managed to compete with Apple who, up to this point, has sold about 3 million iPods and 70 million songs from its iTunes online music service.
Sony has signed a partership with McDonalds and United Airlines in the Connect campaign. McDonalds will offer free Connect songs with a purchase of a HamBurger while United Airlines will give away Connect songs with the redemption of it's air services. Singer Sheryl Crow will be helping Sony with the Connect music service campaign by hosting an in-flight concert to Los Angeles.
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