Sony is not making it any secret that it is going into video downloading business just like its competitors Microsoft and Apple. According to Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO of Sony, Sony will venture into this business with chosen partners. Sony will not go into it alone.
Sony is testing the service that will sell videos, music and other digital content via its Internet-connected PlayStation 3 machines. Hence, the network is dubbed PlayStation Network.
Stringers suggests that he will let any studios, music labels and gadget makers to piggyback on Sony PlayStation system as long as they support Sony’s digital rights management (DRM) technology. This would open the possibilities of having as many choices of games, videos and songs for the consumers.
By allowing other companies to collaborate in selling their products via Sony’s PlayStation Network, Sony is squaring off its competitors like Apple and Microsoft who are into this business much earlier than Sony.
In the industry, mixed experiences are encountered by Sony’s competitors. According to market research Gartner, Microsoft with its Zune is running on software not available on other gadgets. Very much like Apple’s iPod. But, iPod is having much success due to its tight integration between hardware and software over the network.
Sony will release a new version of Playstation 3 (PS3) with a smaller hard drive and no backward compatibility with the previous Playstations from October 10. The new PS3 will be priced at £299 and it comes with only 40 gigabyte hard disk. It will be released in Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
Sony has reduced the price of the 60 gigabyte model from £425 to £349.
According to Ray Maguire, head of PlaystationUK, the decision to release the 40 gigabyte PS3 version was a strategic decison based on consumer feedback where they like Playstation 3 but it is too expansive.
Sony was the market leader for the previous two generations of Playstation. In the current market, Nintendo Wii is leading the market with 10 million units, followed closely by Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 shipped only 5.5 million units worldwide.
The reduced version of PS3 comes with a reduction of USB ports from 4 to 2, no slots for memory cards and no backward compatibility to previous versions. This would mean that games designed for PS1 and PS2 will not play on this reduced version of PS3. However, this version still comes with build in wi-fi connectivity and Blu-ray DVD player.