[Sussex] Sony at the CES, etc..

[Neil Ford]

[ I really should be working, but one has to goof off every now and 
then :-) ]

On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 09:50  am, Geoff Teale wrote:

> In response to both Nik and Neil:
> ---------------------------------
>
> Neil, your point about PalmOS is very valid.  Trouble is the consumers 
> are
> always sold on flashy features - the fact the PalmOS is better suited 
> to the
> task of managing your diary and contacts than Pocket PC hasn't stopped
> millions of consumers shifting to the flashier platform.  A modern PDA 
> is as
> powerful as a desktop machine was when I was at Uni - Sharp have 
> proven that
> LINUX can very definitely work on PDA's.
>
My impression is that with the exception of geeks, the vast majority of 
Pocket PC purchases have been corporate, or at least corporate 
influenced. That and people thinking they need versions of Word, Excel 
and Powerpoint on their handheld. Admittedly even Palm are resigned to 
that one and are including Dataviz's Documents to Go with the 
Tungsten/T.

I'm not convinced Sharp have proven Linux works... not if sales are any 
indicator, but that is probably due to the issue you expand upon below.

> Nik.. you may have a point.  But I do think there is a personal 
> vendetta
> here on the part of the board of Sony - there have been a number of 
> problems
> between Microsoft and Sony in the last few years.  With the entrance of
> Microsoft into the Phone, PDA and games console markets Sony feels the
> approach of another giant in a market that hasn't got room for another 
> giant
> - I think the OS announcement (with Bill Gates standing in the wings 
> waiting
> to make his keynote address) was a calculated tactical blow against
> Microsoft.
>
As you say, it does sound like a tactical move to at the very least to 
embarrass Microsoft. I suspect the Boys in Redmond are too thick 
skinned to notice though :-)

> This OS strategy follows the pattern of phone market - the biggest 
> vendors
> (Nokia, Sony Erricson, etc.) worked out that if they banded together 
> they
> can forcebly muscle Microsoft out of their market - I think it will be 
> some
> time before we see LINUX on phones (because they alliance with Nokia is
> important enough to stick with the existing, agreed platform) - but it 
> may
> happen if Sony can establish these technologies higher up the chain.
>
The phone market is horribly fragmented. Even Nokia don't run the same 
OS across their whole range and they haven't even been able to 
implement a technology they invented, SyncML, properly, whilst Sony 
Ericsson have (which is why iSync can only sync with Sony phones). 
Linux on phones is probably a *long* way off.

> I actually think everything below laptop level is a no-brainer.  The
> consumer will not know the difference anyhow.  Once we get to actual 
> PC's
> though I think it's a harder faught battle.  Will consumers accept 
> LINUX on
> the Vaio?  It's a test of Sony's brand against Microsoft's - right now 
> in
> the PC market Microsoft is the dominating factor - however you have to
> wonder how many people would happily by a Sony laptop that's £200 
> cheaper
> than the competition because it runs LINUX rather than Windows - whilst
> people doubt Linux right now (mostly through total ignorance of it 
> rather
> than any well founded arguement) would they still doubt it if it had a 
> Sony
> logo attached?
>
This comes back to the other discussions we have had. Sony may be able 
to sell Linux but unless everyone else embraces it buy producing 
drivers and software, then all they will achieve is to sell stuff to 
existing Sony customers. What's the point of buying a laptop that you 
can only plug Sony digital cameras into? "Sorry sir, your £5000 Canon 
1Ds isn't supported by this laptop. You'll need one of these many 
others running Windows."

It really depends on who the other players are as to whether or not 
this flies, inside or outside of Japan.

Neil.