08-17-2006, 10:49 AM
I used to really like Sony products. They tended to be well designed, innovative, performed well, and lasted a long time. Sure the stuff tended to be more expensive but I don't remember ever being dissapointed. Who can forget all of those fond memories with PS1 and PS2?
But over time Sony has turned into a bastard company that I loathe and despise. I think a lot of the trouble began when they got into the music, TV, and movie business. As an electronic company you'd think that owning the media would be a great asset, but it has turned into a fundamental conflict of interest.
Basically, Sony cripples its electronic products because it doesn't want people to violate the copyright of any of the media they own. They've jealously created a bunch of closed, propietary standards so that they and they alone could control all of the content. And of course consumers have promptly ignored them.
Exhibit A: MiniDisc
How long were these on the market? Exactly.
Exhibit B: Memory Sticks
These have actually stuck around because Sony's cameras were good enough that people didn't care that they couldn't buy some of the cheaper flash memory like CompactFlash.
Still, one has to wonder if they could've sold even more cameras, PSP's, Clie's and other devices by just subscribing to the industry standard rather than reinventing the wheel.
Exhibit C: NetWalkman
Sony really should have been the ones to come up with the market redefining music player (the iPod). But instead they dragged their feet and when they did come up with something it was dead on arrival
Exhibit D: PSP
The Playstation Portable could have been a killer app. Here you have a handheld gaming device that you could surf the internet on, run homebrew games and applications on, and watch music and movies.
But what did they do? They make it stupid difficult to upload video, they charge $20 for the MD movies, and they purposefully break homebrew applications with every firmware upgrade. I would have bought a PSP if not for all of this foolishness.
Playstation 3
So now we have the PS3 on the horizon and Sony thinks that they can charge $500 and $600 for it when Microsoft is charging $300-400 for the XBox360 and Nintendo is charging $199 for the Wii.
Sony in their delusional hubris believes that they won't have a problem selling their system because it will have native Blu Ray DVD playback. Their reasoning is that it will be the cheapest Blu Ray DVD player on the market, which is true.
However I think they will fail because people don't care about nor want Blu Ray DVD players. The major consumer benefit of the Blu Ray DVD's is simply that they play movies at a higher resolution. Who cares, DVD's are already enough to satisfy all but the ultra media geek. Not to mention the fact that HDTV's have very poor market penetration so most people wouldn't see the difference anyway.
It's a shame because Sony used to be such a good company but now they are on a precipitous slide that has no sign of ending, unless they get rid of their content divisions
Thoughts?
But over time Sony has turned into a bastard company that I loathe and despise. I think a lot of the trouble began when they got into the music, TV, and movie business. As an electronic company you'd think that owning the media would be a great asset, but it has turned into a fundamental conflict of interest.
Basically, Sony cripples its electronic products because it doesn't want people to violate the copyright of any of the media they own. They've jealously created a bunch of closed, propietary standards so that they and they alone could control all of the content. And of course consumers have promptly ignored them.
Exhibit A: MiniDisc
How long were these on the market? Exactly.
Exhibit B: Memory Sticks
These have actually stuck around because Sony's cameras were good enough that people didn't care that they couldn't buy some of the cheaper flash memory like CompactFlash.
Still, one has to wonder if they could've sold even more cameras, PSP's, Clie's and other devices by just subscribing to the industry standard rather than reinventing the wheel.
Exhibit C: NetWalkman
Sony really should have been the ones to come up with the market redefining music player (the iPod). But instead they dragged their feet and when they did come up with something it was dead on arrival
Exhibit D: PSP
The Playstation Portable could have been a killer app. Here you have a handheld gaming device that you could surf the internet on, run homebrew games and applications on, and watch music and movies.
But what did they do? They make it stupid difficult to upload video, they charge $20 for the MD movies, and they purposefully break homebrew applications with every firmware upgrade. I would have bought a PSP if not for all of this foolishness.
Playstation 3
So now we have the PS3 on the horizon and Sony thinks that they can charge $500 and $600 for it when Microsoft is charging $300-400 for the XBox360 and Nintendo is charging $199 for the Wii.
Sony in their delusional hubris believes that they won't have a problem selling their system because it will have native Blu Ray DVD playback. Their reasoning is that it will be the cheapest Blu Ray DVD player on the market, which is true.
However I think they will fail because people don't care about nor want Blu Ray DVD players. The major consumer benefit of the Blu Ray DVD's is simply that they play movies at a higher resolution. Who cares, DVD's are already enough to satisfy all but the ultra media geek. Not to mention the fact that HDTV's have very poor market penetration so most people wouldn't see the difference anyway.
It's a shame because Sony used to be such a good company but now they are on a precipitous slide that has no sign of ending, unless they get rid of their content divisions
Thoughts?
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com