The Wall Street Journal has recently reported on Sony Ericsson’s desire to establish itself better in the mobile phone music distribution arena. Will this be an opportunity for the Connect service to unionize and converge with a stronger division within Sony? It is possible that this may be spearheaded by Europe as the USA has been a fickle battleground as of late. It is doubtful this store will have ATRAC offerings if everything comes to fruitition, since Walkman phones don’t support the codec. Sony Walkman phones only support MP3, AAC or AAC+, MIDI, WAV and XMF.
Alot of questions come to mind:
- Does that mean Sony is actually going to come out with an mp3 service, or will it be AAC?
- What bitrates are we to expect?
- What program will facilitate the music store?
Mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson is set to unveil plans for an online music service later this year, following rival Nokia Corp.’s recently announced plans to acquire music distribution company Loudeye Corp., a Sony Ericsson spokesman said Wednesday.
“We do indeed have such plans. We hope to provide more details within a couple of months, perhaps sooner,” said Sony Ericsson spokesman Aldo Liguori.
In the past year mobile-phone makers have introduced a range of phones that are also able to play music in the same way as mp3 players. With the higher data transfer speeds offered by third-generation technology it is now possible to download music files directly online to the phones. Loudeye, which Nokia on Aug. 8 said it intends to acquire, has deals with all the major record companies and provides a music distribution “engine” that is then branded by third parties who want to set up an online music store. Nokia said it would also set up a music service using its own brand.
Sony Ericsson, a joint venture of Sweden’s Telefon AB LM Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp., said in May when it launched its latest music phone under the Walkman brand that it may expand its current PlayNow service, which offers ringtones and games to also include music.
Ericsson already offers a platform for music download and Sony controls significant content.
