MUMBAI: Tech giant Sony is prepared to showcase its latest music venture, to compete with Apple's iTunes. Sony plans to launch an online store to sell music, movies, and books, as well as other downloadable applications for mobile products. The store is tentatively named Sony Online Service.

Sony will nevertheless look to differentiate the service by enabling users to upload their personal content via Google's YouTube--the company is also said to be considering the addition of an App Store-like mobile application marketplace open to independent software developers. The company is considering allowing third-party developers to create apps that work with the online portal. The service is expected to enable direct video and image uploads, allowing users to display the content on their personal accounts.

Little has been disclosed regarding details of the Sony Online Service. Officials didn't specify when Sony Online Service would go live or what it would look like, but the online storefront is said to likely bear some similarities to Apple's iTunes store and would be Sony's most ambitious attempt to link its products to its own vast library of digital content.

Sony's executive VP of networked products and services, Kazuo Hirai, claims the company is still debating how many of the current Network members will transition to the new service. "We would target quite a few of them," he said.