My FT column this week is on the e-book rivalry between Sony’s Reader and Amazon’s Kindle:
Ever since Sony lost the battle between its Walkman music player and Apple’s iPod, it has been trying to strike back. This week, it paid $900m to take full control of Sony-BMG, its music joint venture with Bertelsmann.
Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive, wants to make it as easy as possible to download or stream music and films to all of Sony’s electronics devices, from Bravia televisions to PlayStation 3 consoles.
Sir Howard, still smarting at how Apple integrated hardware, software and its iTunes music store far better than Sony, has another target in mind. He wants 90 per cent of Sony’s hardware devices to be networked, and even to be connected wirelessly, within two years.
In one small corner of Sony’s empire, however, it has just made the same mistake all over again. It has squandered an early lead in a new field because another company was better not just at inventing an electronic device but also at linking it to a wireless network and making it easy for consumers to use.
You can read the rest here and comment below.
