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Sony and Apple?
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Sony, HP... none of these folks want Mister Softee to define standards any more than he already does.
Before we jump to too many conclusions, I think, at least for the near future, the only thing we will see in a partnership between Apple and Sony is co-operation with music stores. Sony probably sees that Jobs is right when he says there is no money to be made by distibuting music online, and instead of creating their own infrastructure and trying to compete will Apple, Sony Music is probably insterested in making a deal with iTMS (maybe not nessessarily through iTMS, Sony will probably have it's own store, but will be "compatible" with the iPod and iTunes). If that were to happen, there would be the possibility of making a Sony branded iPod (purple?).
I seriously doubt Apple will liscense OS X to Sony (even if Sony wanted it, which they probably don't), and I doubt Apple will partner with Sony for any kind of iPhone (though a working relationship could mean improved connectivity between Apple products and Sony products).
I seriously doubt Apple will liscense OS X to Sony (even if Sony wanted it, which they probably don't), and I doubt Apple will partner with Sony for any kind of iPhone (though a working relationship could mean improved connectivity between Apple products and Sony products).
I believe the poster was referring to the fact that Sony does not provide the support themselves. Their lack of support does not speak well for their overall interest in supporting the Mac... at least at this time.
i think we're looking for BUILT IN support, not 3rd party software. now that Palm is dumping us, maybe it's a moot point.
i love Sony products, but i have passed over a few in the past b/c of no Mac support. i just bought a LaCie firewire drive a couple weeks ago b/c the Sony i was looking at was PC only. i threw away my old Sony "MP3" (Atrac) player for the same reason. i already have a Sony Tivo, Sony camera, Sony widescreen HDTV, but having some Mac support/influence in some of the products would be REALLY nice.
crap, come to think of it, i may own more Sony branded stuff than Apple! c'mon steve, let's pen some deals over a bottle of sake...
A smart move
I've been thinking about this for a long time, it just makes perfect sense. If your Apple who better to license OSX to than a manufacture that charges a premium on their products as well. This will pretty much keep things stable and not eat away at Apple's revenue's like the clones did. If your Sony you really want to try and show MS a thing or two (how dare they challenge the PS2)
. Competition is good and anything that will get any Apple product mentioned will eventually lead to a Mac purchase somewhere.
I've been thinking about this for a long time, it just makes perfect sense. If your Apple who better to license OSX to than a manufacture that charges a premium on their products as well. This will pretty much keep things stable and not eat away at Apple's revenue's like the clones did. If your Sony you really want to try and show MS a thing or two (how dare they challenge the PS2)
. Competition is good and anything that will get any Apple product mentioned will eventually lead to a Mac purchase somewhere.Cell Processor, G5 and Mac / PS3
Sony and IBM are collaborating on the Cell processor, which is essentially a PowerPC derivative with some built-in clustering features: Multiple Cell-powered devices can share the CPU load automatically, for instance. The practical upshot of this is that games for PS3 could use G5 Macs as a development platform, and it would make it a lot easier to port PS3 games to OS X. This would have been impossible with PS2 - too much custom hardware to emulate.
Microsoft's XBox Next is also using G5s, and -from reports- using G5 Macs as a development platform. Is this Apple's stealth strategy - they've already taken over Hollywood (and Indie-wood) and the music business, now they're going after the multi-billion-dollar console games market?
Sony and IBM are collaborating on the Cell processor, which is essentially a PowerPC derivative with some built-in clustering features: Multiple Cell-powered devices can share the CPU load automatically, for instance. The practical upshot of this is that games for PS3 could use G5 Macs as a development platform, and it would make it a lot easier to port PS3 games to OS X. This would have been impossible with PS2 - too much custom hardware to emulate.
Microsoft's XBox Next is also using G5s, and -from reports- using G5 Macs as a development platform. Is this Apple's stealth strategy - they've already taken over Hollywood (and Indie-wood) and the music business, now they're going after the multi-billion-dollar console games market?
Re: Same theme as article in Fortune
i'm sure that you weren't specifically trying to be offensive, but your post reinforces a whole bunch of stereotypes...the japanese as busy little worker bees, with the implication being that they need US help to innovate anything, which is obviously not true. oh, and the term 'jap' is actually a derogatory term, not merely an abbreviation. i just thought i'd point it out.
i'm sure that you weren't specifically trying to be offensive, but your post reinforces a whole bunch of stereotypes...the japanese as busy little worker bees, with the implication being that they need US help to innovate anything, which is obviously not true. oh, and the term 'jap' is actually a derogatory term, not merely an abbreviation. i just thought i'd point it out.
I think that from Apple's point of view, it would be great to work with Sony on the Playstation line of products.
For several reasons:
1. They own the console market, which equals big, big, big userbase. Imagine if they could get an iTunes-version preloaded on the PS3? Roughly 50 million potential iTMS customers right there.
2. Tons of great exposure for Apple.
3. "outsourcing" of products. Why should Apple make a set-top-box if they could just connect a PSX or PS3 with a Mac and have them work together? I think something like that would drive sales of Macs crazy high, if it were to ever happen. Or make a PDA, when they could just add iCal/iTunes-syncing with the Sony PSP?
4. both companies are making their ownd digital hubs, but if they work together they'd get the most out of it.
Naturally, in my dream-scenario Sony wouldn't be benefiting that much compared to Apple, so something like this would probably never happen. But still, I'd be in heaven if it did.
For several reasons:
1. They own the console market, which equals big, big, big userbase. Imagine if they could get an iTunes-version preloaded on the PS3? Roughly 50 million potential iTMS customers right there.
2. Tons of great exposure for Apple.
3. "outsourcing" of products. Why should Apple make a set-top-box if they could just connect a PSX or PS3 with a Mac and have them work together? I think something like that would drive sales of Macs crazy high, if it were to ever happen. Or make a PDA, when they could just add iCal/iTunes-syncing with the Sony PSP?
4. both companies are making their ownd digital hubs, but if they work together they'd get the most out of it.
Naturally, in my dream-scenario Sony wouldn't be benefiting that much compared to Apple, so something like this would probably never happen. But still, I'd be in heaven if it did.
Apple's Holy Grail
The Holy Grail in any relationship Apple has with Sony has to be undoubtedly iTunes, and support for the iTunes Music Store. There would be no greater coup, no greater slap in Microsoft's face, and no greater validation than having the company that invented the Walkman and portable personal music players on-board with iTMS and FairPlay/AAC.
Of course whether that would happen or not is really a question mark. Sony is notorious for it's NIH-syndrome; "Not Invented Here". They would need to drop (or augment at least) support of their own proprietary ATRAC3 format and god-awful DRM (and you thought WMA DRM was restrictive) and SonicStage software, in favour of AAC which they would need to pay licensing for. But think of the insane potential market penetration that could be achieved with AAC-capable CD Walkman, NetMDs, and Sony's own MP3 player line? Granted, the latter two don't sell particularly well, but you always see people buying CD Walkman.
Will that cut into low-end iPod sales? Probably, but perhaps the greater exposure and increased user base might actually make iTMS more profitable. And the iPod will always be the goal device. Start people using iTMS on something low-end, and work them up to aniPod as their music collection grows.
Just my $0.02.
The Holy Grail in any relationship Apple has with Sony has to be undoubtedly iTunes, and support for the iTunes Music Store. There would be no greater coup, no greater slap in Microsoft's face, and no greater validation than having the company that invented the Walkman and portable personal music players on-board with iTMS and FairPlay/AAC.
Of course whether that would happen or not is really a question mark. Sony is notorious for it's NIH-syndrome; "Not Invented Here". They would need to drop (or augment at least) support of their own proprietary ATRAC3 format and god-awful DRM (and you thought WMA DRM was restrictive) and SonicStage software, in favour of AAC which they would need to pay licensing for. But think of the insane potential market penetration that could be achieved with AAC-capable CD Walkman, NetMDs, and Sony's own MP3 player line? Granted, the latter two don't sell particularly well, but you always see people buying CD Walkman.
Will that cut into low-end iPod sales? Probably, but perhaps the greater exposure and increased user base might actually make iTMS more profitable. And the iPod will always be the goal device. Start people using iTMS on something low-end, and work them up to aniPod as their music collection grows.
Just my $0.02.
It's the software, stupid!
At least with respect to the VAIO lines, Sony has tried really hard to build integrated multimedia creation and playback solutions. They've got most of the hardware aspects down well enough, but they have still yet to grasp the importance of good software that integrates well with the hardware. Too often they bundle together multimedia PCs with software from different vendors that is poorly documented, works inconsistently on their own or with each other (for movie editing and DVD authoring, for example). Looking at Sony's offerings, then looking again at Apple's iLife and professional suites, really drives home the point.
Apple can't really help Sony out in this venue unless they license out Mac OS X to Sony. I always thought Sony would be a natural candidate to license OS X for consumer/multimedia purposes, much like IBM is a natural candidate to license OS X for high-end workstation/server applications that Apple can't really target right now.
And I used to be an inveterate Sony brand loyalist myself. My dad did some consulting work for Sony in the 70s and flew back and forth to Tokyo quite a bit. He came up with his own tagline that became a mantra to me: "Sony, no baloney!" Unfortunately that's worn off over the years.
Like all big electronics manufacturers, some lines fare better than others: they still make the best overall consumer-level DV cams, but the quality of their low-to-midrange stereo components really took a nosedive, Panasonic/JVC/Toshiba have caught up on flat-screen TV technology, and Sony got a late start on plasma/LCD technology. Their vaunted design quality has been very inconsistent; some things are elegant and simple to understand, other products are too fussy and confusing. They have "Not-Invented-Here" syndrome (manifested most infamously in the Memory Stick) far worse than Apple ever did. It seems there isn't a strong overriding vision overseeing their product design and targeting. It's a harder task for a huge company with such a diverse product line; Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive would be hard pressed to duplicate their success in this area at Apple if they were magically transported over to Sony.
At least with respect to the VAIO lines, Sony has tried really hard to build integrated multimedia creation and playback solutions. They've got most of the hardware aspects down well enough, but they have still yet to grasp the importance of good software that integrates well with the hardware. Too often they bundle together multimedia PCs with software from different vendors that is poorly documented, works inconsistently on their own or with each other (for movie editing and DVD authoring, for example). Looking at Sony's offerings, then looking again at Apple's iLife and professional suites, really drives home the point.
Apple can't really help Sony out in this venue unless they license out Mac OS X to Sony. I always thought Sony would be a natural candidate to license OS X for consumer/multimedia purposes, much like IBM is a natural candidate to license OS X for high-end workstation/server applications that Apple can't really target right now.
And I used to be an inveterate Sony brand loyalist myself. My dad did some consulting work for Sony in the 70s and flew back and forth to Tokyo quite a bit. He came up with his own tagline that became a mantra to me: "Sony, no baloney!" Unfortunately that's worn off over the years.
Like all big electronics manufacturers, some lines fare better than others: they still make the best overall consumer-level DV cams, but the quality of their low-to-midrange stereo components really took a nosedive, Panasonic/JVC/Toshiba have caught up on flat-screen TV technology, and Sony got a late start on plasma/LCD technology. Their vaunted design quality has been very inconsistent; some things are elegant and simple to understand, other products are too fussy and confusing. They have "Not-Invented-Here" syndrome (manifested most infamously in the Memory Stick) far worse than Apple ever did. It seems there isn't a strong overriding vision overseeing their product design and targeting. It's a harder task for a huge company with such a diverse product line; Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive would be hard pressed to duplicate their success in this area at Apple if they were magically transported over to Sony.
is it me, or does no one realize that Ideo has done a huge number of design projects for Apple? Everyone is always talking about Apple's industrial design, but no one seems to know that Apple learned design from Ideo. No doubt Apple is now great, but I'd be willing to bet they continue to work with Ideo.
You're right. Ideo designs are really good looking. Only them (maybe Apple too) could come up with such a swell looking "Kidney Transporter" ^_^
> Click to see: Kidney Transporter <
I like their remote too:
>_Click to see: Wireless Handheld Remote <
It most likely already does.
GSM/GPRS phones use the 3GPP video/audio codec, which is a part of the MPEG-4 spec... just like AAC is.
/ek
Re: Sony is buying Apple
But Sony quality control has gone way down over the past several years. I'd rather apple stay independant, at least in terms of their manufacturing contracts and specifications. Isn't Sony in debt up to it's eyeballs and laying off lots of people worldwide??Originally posted by JJTiger1
... old rumor.
... new sparks
Apple is Debt-Free.
Heh, if Apple bought Sony, Bill gates would shoot himself, if Sony is in a slump, now is the perfect time to buy them, keep the Sony brand name, but have Apple as the official company!