Sony Envisions a Whiz-Bangy Digital Download Future

Here's an idea: what if new consumer electronics could connect to an online marketplace where you could purchase content?

That's Sony's new strategy, announced this week. (WSJ coverage / NY Times coverage)

It's a radical idea, connecting these newfangled "devices" to storehouses of digital content. Like, what if you had an online destination called iTunes, and a device called an iPhone, and they'd work together?

Oh, wait, Apple has been pursuing that vision since January 2001.

Seven-and-a-half years seems like a pretty slow pace for a game of catch-up....

(Here are some notes from Stringer's recent appearance at the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference.)