Sony readying iTunes rival?

UK broadsheet The Financial Times is claiming that Sony will use its presentation at consumer electronics trade show IFA to unveil a brand new iTunes-rivalling digital sales platform.

The service will reportedly be fronted by both the PS3 and PSP though will at a later date roll out onto Vaio PCs, Walkmans, Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Bravia TVs.

The whole thing is said to be subscription based and will take the place of the now defunt Sony Connect store. Both music and videos will be offered.

Whether Sony’s new product will have the rug pulled from under it by whatever it is that Apple is preparing to unveil this afternoon remains to be seen. The safest bet is a new version of the iPod, but more glamorous guesses point to a cloud-computing based version of iTunes.

IFA kicks off in Berlin on Friday September 3rd.