Sony Ericsson planning online music store

In an announcement that has produced more questions than answers, Sony Ericsson has hinted that they'll be opening an online music store in the coming months, largely in response to Nokia's digestion of Loudeye. Of course, parent Sony runs Connect, so it remains to be seen how (or even if) the new service will integrate with it; if it does, this could be a trick way for Sony Ericsson to get more exposure with their Walkman devices than they've managed so far in the States. On the other hand, if the new service comes off feeling utterly unrelated with no value add for existing Connect customers and no motivation for adding a Walkman phone to their stable, the initiative could be dead on arrival. We're going to take a wait-and-see approach on this one; excuse us while we dump a couple thousand MP3s on our W950i.