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Sony Plans European "Ad Blitz" to Battle iTunes

by , 1:15 PM EDT, September 30th, 2004

Reuters is reporting that Sony is planning a major "marketing blitz" in Europe to help battle Apple's iTunes Music Store market share. The ad blitz was announced at the same venue where Apple announced yesterday that it would be expanding its European operations for the iTunes Music Store, the Popkomm music trade show in Berlin. From Reuters:

Sony Corp. next week will launch a marketing blitz in Europe for its new Connect music download store, its latest effort to derail the runaway momentum of Apple Computer's iTunes service.

The Japanese consumer electronics giant said on Thursday it would heavily promote the Connect service in new advertisements for four Walkman products, including the recently launched NW-HD1 hard disc player.

You can find the full article at Yahoo!'s Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Sony has had major difficulty competing with Apple in the area of music players and music downloads, especially in the US, so it will be interesting to see if throwing ad money at the problem will help in Europe. So far, the company's two biggest liabilities are its use of the ATRAC3 music format for downloads, and the fact that no one seems to enjoy actually using the Walkman NW-HD1. Those are two overwhelming problems, but Sony is adaptable, if anything. Still, Apple is likely to remain on top in Europe, with or without an ad blitz from Sony (or Microsoft).

Reuters Article

Observer Comments

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Close Name:jakee Posts: 50 Joined: 09 May 2003
Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:47 pm Subject: Good news for Apple?

When iTunes opened in Europe competing players, mainly OD2 franchisees, had a large uptick in downloads. More public awareness created by Sony may increase the numbers of people looking at the alternative, in this case iTunes/iPod.


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Close Name:kenaustus Posts: 601 Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:47 pm Subject: Sony has a problem

They didn't work hard enough to copy the iPod and were left with a player that isn't that hot. They have come out with another design, but that will miss the Christmas season.

For those that want to compete with Apple the rules are fairly simple - copy what they are doing in the area of elegance & simplicity. Don't load it up with more features that Longhorn - oops, Longhorn is getting stripped of features . . .


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