[Sussex] Sony at the CES, etc..

[Geoff Teale]

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

I, for once, am actually having trouble fitting this conversation in amongst
work demands - this i actually a refreshing change!

> 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.

Yup I think that's completely it, or at least that plus the fact that the
pocket PC models are far flasher - they play video and such like - PDA's are
as much a posing device as a useful tool -  I have been to innumberable
meetings where the suits opened up by comparing PDA's  - apparantly the
number of features divided by the thickness of the case is a quotiuent of
manhood amongst suits.
 
> 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.

Depends where you are measuring sales. In Japan they are number 1.  In the
UK they are almost impossible to find in high street shops - this has a lot
to do with one group (Dixons) monopolising high street electronics - sharp
can't get their laptops into these stores either (I imagine they can get
video and hi-fi in there, but come to think of it, I've never seen it).

This is at least one place where Sony have an advantage - they are "in"
almost everywhere and they also have their own high street shops across most
of the western world.

> 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 :-)

Agreed.  Arrogance is a definite trademark of Microsoft.
 
> 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.

However, 3G phones have very much been developed on a common base - and
infact the most common component is the Opera web browser (which was key to
the shrugging off of Microsoft ).  The way Microsoft approached the phone
market was: "We have a platform.  If anyone markets a phone with our logo on
it, everyone will want it - if that phone isn't your then you'll lose out".


I think the phone companies looked at their dwindling profit margins and
asked themselves if they could afford to share the pie, and if consumer will
really look for Windows on their phone as opposed to "Nokia" on their phone
and resolutely told Microsoft where it could stick it.
 
> 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.

A very good point.  Linux device support is pretty good already without
these big companies - what this could add is momentum to drive big companies
to produce devices with drivers for a market supported by a number of big
players.

In my (optomistic) view : Build it and they will come!

;)

Maybe I'm just suffering the effects of Munch Bunch consumption

-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

"People keep asking me if I think Oasis are as good as the Beatles.  I don't
think they're as good as the Rutles!"
 - Douglas Adams



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