Sony Vs Apple, could Sony win?

Mike Bantick
Friday, 11 February 2011 14:11

Opinion and Analysis

There is another digitised war a-brewin.  And as is nearly always the case lately, Sony and Apple are involved.  The Sony hierarchy are miffed about Apple's blocking of an e-book app that bypassed iTunes content delivery mechanism, and from here the battle has escalated to the point where Sony may pull its vast catalogue of music content from iTunes.

It started jus on two weeks ago when Apple blocked Sony's e-book application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  The reasoning being that the app bypassed the Apple system for content purchasing.

This has obviously ticked off some of the Sony hierarchy who have hinted at pulling content from the closed Apple content delivery system iTunes.   

Sony has a number of download or content streaming technology plans on the go, including Music Unlimited coming to Australia in the near future.  

When discussing the new service, backed by a library of some 6 million tracks, Michael Ephraim, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment in Australia put in a bold declaration if the service took off; 'If we do [get mass acceptance] then does SONY MUSIC need to provide content to iTUNES? ... Currently we do. We have to provide it to iTUNES as that's the format right now ... Publishers are being held to ransom by APPLE and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold."  Ephraim told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sony has also recently announced PlayStation Suite, a service for bringing 'PlayStation quality' games to mobile devices.  Well mobile devices running Android 2.3 at least.   Again Ephraim put some more pins into his Apple shaped voodoo doll saying PlayStation Suite was unlikely to appear on any iOS running device; ''We are not as closed as Apple is. It's the first time in the gaming industry it's non-proprietary. With the proliferation of devices [PlayStation Suite] could be an indication of where things are going.''

With devices such as the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Sony Ericsson phones, increasingly networked Bravia TV's and future directions like the NGP(Next Generation Portable), it is possible Sony has the tech arsenal to take on Apple's well-fortified and dug-in position.  

Success will depend on the quality of the products, marketing, take-up, ease of use, pricing, accessibility and a certain amount of X factor.  All of these boxes Sony is capable of ticking, but we have seen the tech giant falter at one or more of them in the past, and to take on Apple, all of the Sony guns will need to avoid a miss-fire.