Remember PlayMemories Online? If you don’t, you’re likely not alone. For those unaware, PlayMemories Online was Sony’s take on iCloud Photo Library or Google Photos. Once the free app was downloaded, compatible devices could sync their photos to Sony’s cloud service and have them populate across connected devices that included Android phones/tablets, Bravia TVs, cameras, and even the PS3/PS4.

Unfortunately, it’s looking like Sony is bringing the service to an end come 2017 – but that’s probably a good thing. According to XperiaBlog:

 Sony Mobile has announced that it is terminating the “PlayMemories Online” feature from the Xperia Album application. PlayMemories Online offered free storage allowing users to back up their photos and videos. Sony is now sending emails to users confirming that the service will end on 31 March 2017. 

It’s worth noting that after March 31st, all your photos will be deleted so if you haven’t downloaded them, you’ve got less than a year to do so. Sony is even offering a free download tool to help you retrieve your photos.

As to why it’s both good for Sony and consumers that the service is coming to an end is real simple – focus. You see, there is no way that Sony has the resources (both financial and personal) to challenge Apple and Google in this arena and in turn, no matter what they did with PlayMemories Online, it would always trail those two giants. This meant that despite throwing money at it, Sony stood a very low chance of actually ever becoming a competitor to those services that a wider audience set would consider adopting. In that same breath, this also means that those who used PlayMemories Online were never getting the best that they could and with something as precious as photos (which is what I consider the most important thing on my computer and mobile devices), that’s just not good enough.

Now Sony is giving consumers time to move on to a service that hopefully suits them better while at the same time shutting down something that was never their key area of focus, expertise, and business.

Another way to look at it is that when Sony decided to scale down their Android skins, it not only resulted in a lower R&D budget (good for Sony’s bottom line) but it also resulted in them producing the most reliable Android phones on the market (good for consumers).

Hopefully in the near future, Sony can transform their mobile arm into a lean devision that focuses on providing the best hardware possible while letting others (mostly Google in this case) do all the heavy software and server related services of the phone.

Discuss:

Did you use PlayMemories Online?