Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony is pulling out of the computer business. For around 15 years it has sold its VAIO laptops (and desktops at one point), but this will end in March with the exception of its home market of Japan. Although a huge global brand, sales have been modest and last year Sony had less than 2% of the worldwide market for computers (the UK was actually one of its stronger markets). Analysts believe that it was just too small in this market to compete, particularly as it was priced as a premium brand.
A new generation of gaming consoles is hitting the shops in time for Christmas, in the form of the PlayStation 4 from Sony and the Xbox One from Microsoft. Whilst we don't usually cover gaming, these machines are significant in that they illustrate the way in which entertainment and computing are converging. The PlayStation 4 (PS4) launches in the UK on November 29th. It is claimed that it has 10 times the processing power of its predecessor, which will make it the most powerful computing device in many households. This powers a new generation of internet-connected, interactive games and entertainment features. Or does it? Somewhat surprisingly, there's actually quite a lot of things that the PS4 cannot do. Out of the box, it doesn't play Blu-ray movies - you have to update the software in order to do this. Want to play an ordinary audio CD? It doesn't do that. How about playing MP3's then? Nope. Existing games from the PS3, PS2 and PS1 don't work either. Plug in an external USB drive for more storage? Not supported. Connect to a home DLNA network for serving? Nah. Existing peripherals (controllers, headsets and such) don't work either. A more comprehensive list can be found on their North American PS4 site at http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/10/30/ps4-the-ultimate-faq-north-america/ It is not unreasonable that Sony wants you to buy new stuff rather than use existing items. After all, they are in this business to make money. Some of the issues could be addressed in software updates. But some of the decisions (no support for audio CDs and MP3s for instance) are because they want you to subscribe to their online streaming services. In the not so very distant future, physical items such as CDs and DVDs are set to vanish and the PS4 pre-dates these developments. Interestingly, Microsoft's Xbox One, which launches on November 22nd, still does support most of these features. It will be interesting to see which one has read the market correctly. |
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