Speaking of Sony, the Economist has a piece on the company and how it’s banking its future on the convergence of PCs and home entertainment. Since Sony is both an electronics company and a media company, this is turning out to be a little more difficult than they had anticipated. One telling passage:
That Apple has come seemingly from nowhere to launch the Walkman of the early 21st century has shaken many Sony executives. As one critic puts it, people walking around with an iPod and an Apple PowerBook look much cooler than those equipped with a Clie and a Vaio notebook. For Sony, that should spell trouble.
Companies like Apple can build the best gadgets without having to worry about whether or not MP3 players depress CD sales. The lesson here might be to not to try to do more than one thing well; electronics companies should just be electronics companies and media companies should just be media companies. If Samsung, which is shaping up to be the Sony of the 21st century, is smart they won’t waste any money buying movie studios and record labels and they’ll stick to making well-designed consumer electronics.
