PSP vending machine trials begin in the US

Sony has announced that trials for vending machines that dish out Sony products have begun in the US.

On Tuesday company officials announced plans to roll out vending machines that will sell all manner of items, such as PSPs, digital cameras, CD players, games and DVDs. The vending machines dubbed Sony Access, which stock around 50 SKUs are already being trialled at three shopping centres: Atlanta's Mall of Georgia; Flatirons Mall in Boulder, Colorado; and the Santa Rosa Mall in Santa Rosa, California.

A unit will be installed at the Indianapolis Airport next month, with six additional locations planned to be added to the test during July and August.

"We believe that we will find that these are purchases that would not have occurred if these machines were not sitting there," said Joe Stinziano, Sony Electronics media and applications solutions division senior VP. "The object is not to transfer a sale from location A to location B, whether those were going to be any of our retail partners or any of our direct establishments like Sony Style Stores or Sony.com. The thinking is there are additional purchases that could occur if we can reach customers more effectively."

There's no word on any such trials scheduled to take place in Europe, so we'll have to make do with the Stone Age methods of going to a shop or ordering off the internet.