Sony, whose Universal Media Disk (UMD) movies failed to establish a strong foothold with the PSP crowd, has announced a new strategy in selling movies to PSP users. This time, the electronics behemoth will hawk films on 1GB and 2GB memory stick duos. The new scheme involves the release of a Memory Stick Entertainment pack which includes a 1 or 2GB memory stick, plus a DVD which offers four movies. The user loads the DVD onto a computer and chooses one of the four movies to unlock. The movie can then be transferred onto the memory stick and viewed on the PSP.
Sony,s proprietary UMD movie format experienced slow sales and lack of interest from consumers and retailers, with several movie studios dropping the format entirely from their rosters. Typical prices for UMD formatted movies are about $30 as compared to $19.99 for standard DVD movies. In an effort to boost sales, Sony started a two-pack movie bundle in which a DVD movie and a UMD disk were bundled together for $28.95.
The Memory Stick Entertainment Pack will be released sometime next month for a 1Gb and 2Gb version for $60 and $100 respectively. The transition to the popular (and cheaper Flash memory-based) storage format may spell the unofficial death for Sony’s ailing UMD.
