Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sony vs. Apple?

beatle888

beatle888

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 3, 2002
1,690
0
how big of a threat do you think sony is to apple? their products are always highly rated. i wonder if apple will eventually, years from now, be picked up by sony. they just pop up all over the place...sony everywhere.

this made me think of a world without apple. in the future. will they be here in 50 years? or will someone have bought them? and what will the computer experience be without apple? will it still be well thought out and make old mac users happy?

i hope so, wait....no make that fourty years so i'll still be alive to see it.
.
 
Sony's products are always highly rated and they are truly very nice products. However they will never have a big share of the windows pc market unless they lower their prices. They are virtually as costly as apples and that does not sit well with many pc users. Therefore, I dont think purchasing apple would help their image. In fact it may even hurt them becuase the most expensive windows pc company would then be paired with the most expensive consumer computer company. Remember price is the only issue to most computer buyers.

my 2 cents

Paul
 
that sounds good. but sony is such a huge company. they can outlast apple and pick them up if apple ever fails.

ok maybe it wouldnt be sony that picks them up. i guess what im interested in is, how long do you think apple will be around? and who will take their place?
 
Sony is no threat to Apple.

The worst thing Sony ever did was got into the Entertainment Industry. Their ownership of Columbia and other Entertainment groups has created a rift in their company. This rift has prevented Sony tech from growing like it should because on one end of the spectrum Sony Hardware seeks to come up with neat items that consumers love but the Entertainment wing is so paranoid about piracy that Sony creates horrible products.

OpenMG is a prime example.

The failure of Minidisc in North America

Sony's late foray into CD Recorders.

Apple would most likely be best aquired by IBM should they falter. IBM has the finances and Patent Portfolio to actually do something with Apples assets.
 
a lot of people decide between apple powerbooks and sony vaio laptops, because the design is hot (guess which one is hotter : ) and the prices are in a comparable range. then again it's the question: windows or macOS...
 
I raised the same question about Apple and a strategic tie-up with Sony a whiles back in another thread.

IMHO they would be a good match - Sony could manufacture the drives (don't they now in some of the Mac models?), help Apple with production line costs and R&D (although I would not want to see Sony 'steal' the R&D for their Vaio, then again, a Vaio with OSX would be cool...), use their expertise in other areas to help Apple expand their 'consumer' line...etc

A good fit indead
 
SONY is the Apple of the PC world. They make smooth designs and charge a premium for older components. Their advantage is brand loyalty, just like Apple. When I go to buy some piece of electronics, and I can afford it, I always go with SONY. If it were not for such brand loyalty, Apple would have been gone many years ago.
 
Some of you guys are very pessimistic.

Firstly: I am not an apple user because of "brand loyalty", I am an apple user because they make a superior product. There is no operating system that is as easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and, most importantly, as STABLE as the MacOS (especially now with X). In terms of manufacturing fit and finish, you find me one PC manufacturer (including sony) that make products as sturdy, beautiful, well designed and reliable as an Apple product. I have owned Compaq machines, IBM machines, Dell machines, Microsoft peripherals, and the like and never found any that match the quality of apple.


Secondly: While apple may have a relatively small marketshare, they have huge "mindshare" and therefore are very well positioned to grow their market. Additionally, while apple may have presented a loss for Q1 2003, this was only because of a 17 million restructuring charge and a 2m accounting correction. Less these two charges and the company made 11m for the quarter, and this is on top of what must have been HUGE R&D costs for the whole line of new products that apple has been and will be releasing this year. Bottom-line - Apple is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Thirdly: On the comment of "outdated" technology, while it is true that apple can be slow to adopt new technologies (optical drives being a prime example) how many technologies have Apple invented and perpetuated themselves? Apple is the company that made USB the universal standard for peripheral products. Apple is the company that made Firewire (or 1394 for some of you) the digital media standard. Firewire 800. MP3 players. PDA's. Consumer GUI's. Mice. The computer game is one in which you place a bet that some innovation will become the industry standard and not be eclipsed by the next innovation by someone else. Apple has won that bet more times than any other company I can think of.

Finally: I really wish some people would just sit and think about what they are saying instead of just bitching about their "outdated" computer not innovating to their doorstep fast enough.
 
if apple ever gets bought out, which i doubt will be anytime soon, sony would be better than someone like dell or microsoft

the advantage apple has over sony is in the operating system and it will always be this way as long as sony relies on windows

now a sony with a version of linux as standard would be an interesting machine

perhaps makers of pcs will start venturing away from windows since microsoft can't force anyone onto their platform anymore
 
Originally posted by makkystyle
Apple is the company that made Firewire (or 1394 for some of you) the digital media standard. Firewire 800. MP3 players. PDA's. Consumer GUI's. Mice.



Finally: I really wish some people would just sit and think about what they are saying instead of just bitching about their "outdated" computer not innovating to their doorstep fast enough.
Click to expand...

First, Apple designed FireWire back in the days when they were pumping much more of their money into R&D. That has all changed now, which is a big part of why they have been profitable for the past few years.


Second, I am very happy with my TiBook 500, which is more than two years old now, and still keeps pace with many PCs.
 
Maybe they can get together and make superb computers. How about joint company called Sopple? Appy?
 
Originally posted by macphoria
Maybe they can get together and make superb computers. How about joint company called Sopple? Appy?
Click to expand...

There wouldn't really be any reason for them to merge unless Apple was about to go under. Second, neither of those names would fly in the marketplace.
 
If a company was to buy Apple it would be most likely M$, but it could be Intel, but not Sony. M$ likes Apple's OS, always has a probably always will. Intel doesnt like M$'s dominance and is trying to be less reliant on them. It looked at BeOS a while back and is now looking and Linux.

Sony will coninue to work with Apple on somethings because they hate M$, especially since they released the Xbox. Sony even work with Nintendo on some things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back