Saturday, February 25th, 2006
Sony’s march into irrelevance
by Warren
The grim spectre of Betamax is invoked by the NYT, with an article about how Sony is once again defying the rest of the industry and trying to force the Blu-Ray hi-def DVD standard down the consumer’s throat. I may yet have to suck that one down, as Apple has voiced their support for the Blu-Ray format.
But Sony does this with more than just DVD formats; the company seems to think that because they were once on top, that gives them leave to introduce formats no–one wants, like ATRAC, minidisc, memory stick and a myriad of others. Sony used to be an innovative company, with great, well-designed products. They could do so again; the PSP at least looks good, and their TVs, while ridiculously overpriced, aren’t bad units. But they need to realize what the consumer wants to buy is more important than whatever agenda they have cooking in their R&D department.