In other words, that's iTunes.

So I'm not surprised that Sony wants to unify its disparate hardware parts through a far-reaching media store, . An states that this is Sony's answer to iTunes, and though it's not clear whether Sony's executives are actually saying that, they'd be wise not to.

First, a bit of history: Sony has tried the online media store before, with . The after three years, and Sony surrendered the proprietary and ill-conceived ATRAC format in favor of the proprietary and ill-conceived Windows Media format.

Thankfully, Sony wised up and added MP3 support over the years, and a new wave of MP3 players, such as , include software for transferring files from iTunes. But if Sony's really expected to challenge iTunes on the music front, consider one statistic: iTunes accounts for in the United states. It's not happening.

The bigger focus for Sony will be video, and to a lesser extent, e-books. On those fronts, Sony can compete because it has devices that let you watch video in the living room. Sony needs to focus here, because TVs and video games are the company's worst-performing categories right now, according to BusinessWeek.