Sony looks to the clouds to deliver wow factor

Sony has thrown its weight behind the cloud announcing plans to stream services that are independent of its consoles with the CEO of the firm talking up the potential of hosted services to deliver users the 'wow' factor.

Speaking in a keynote at CES in Las Vegas Kazuo Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Corporation, said that it had consistently tried to break new ground with product design but was now looking to the cloud to help it push things forward,

"Advanced technologies and more elegant ergonomic designs are important ways products can seduce our sense of sight, sound, and touch. The wonder once associated with tangible products has been expanded by the migration of content, games, music, television, and a lot more to the cloud," he said.

"However, even though the cloud promises a connected future, the cloud itself is not the wow. The wow happens when your senses are engaged, when you see the stunning visuals, when you hear the crisp sounds. When you feel the weight and balance of a perfectly designed device in your hands. When you are dazzled by a sublime form factor. When you are amazed at the ingenuity and cleverness of a technology that you never thought was possible," he added.

The vendor also used CES to reveal that it had already sold 4.2m units of its PlayStation 4 and Andrew House, president and group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment, revealed that the firm would be launching its PlayStationNow streaming service in the US for now as it looks to allow users to access its large library of games on devices ranging from its consoles to other vendor's tablets and phones.