Sony’s Qriocity service isn’t exactly a stranger to the mobile space — its Music Unlimited app launched in the Android Market just last month — but astute users know this is only half of what Qriocity really has to offer.
Their video-on-demand component sees a lot of action across the Sony ecosystem, with footholds on the PS3, PSP, and web-connected Bravia televisions. The question, then, is if will we ever see that service make the same mobile shift that Qriocity’s music offerings have.
According to a post on Sony Ericsson’s Product Blog, the answer is yes, and soon!
The Qriocity video service will launch this Monday (August 1), with a boatload of movies and television content from NBC, Universal, Fox, Sony, and Paramount in tow. Unfortunately, the roll out won’t be quite as broad as we were hoping. Unlike the Music Unlimited app, which is available for all Android devices, Sony plans to limit Qriocity video to its own handsets.
So far, the Xperia mini and mini pro are slated to be the first to benefit from the service, which is accessed by an app from the Android Market. Later in the year, more Xperia devices will get access to the service by way of a softwate update.
I’d wager there’s still some hope to see Qriocity expand beyond Sony’s Android lineup in the future, and preferably by official means. I’m sure some enterprising hackers would be able to make the .apk available, but I’d personally pay for a service that just worked on my device. Of course, official expansion would force Sony to deal with the same compatibility issues that Netflix has had to contend with. Whether or not they think it would be worth the effort is up in the air, but it could provide some much needed leverage for its subscription service.