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Sony Kills off Aibo, Qrio, Qualia 189

Posted by Hemos from the and-johnny-five dept.
Tomo-chan writes "It seems Sony's cost-cutting has made it a more pragmatic company. The new boss has weilded his mighty chopper and put an end to both Aibo and Qrio, as well as some other marginal product lines. Aibo -- we'll miss you..."
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Sony Kills off Aibo, Qrio, Qualia More

Sony Kills off Aibo, Qrio, Qualia

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  • Truly bad product timing or economic pressure? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:38PM (#14568653) Homepage Journal
    I think the proper title should be "the consumer market killed off some of Sony's fad products." Sony wouldn't kill off products that made them a profit. A profit is the only proof of a product's viability -- if people are willing to pay you to perform a service or build a product, your ability to profit proves if the product/service is worthy of your time.

    I think we'll see more of these fad/trend items from other Asian manufacturers start to fall out of the production lines. The U.S. is one of the biggest consumers of these useless products, and personal debt is way too high to keep buying more stuff that depreciates 60% the minute it hits the house. With Americans buying less, Asian manufacturers have to reorganize their product lines for items that we do need.

    Sony is already out of my buying schedule -- the rootkit and the overall low quality of products they've made in recent years have led me to decide to never buy their products again. I help a few cEOs and upper management types from my client base purchase home electronics and appliances -- I'll always tell them never buy Sony. I remember a few years ago how many of these 6+ figure income types were asking about Aibo and other eccentric toys, nowadays I hear nothing of the sort. Even worse, I don't even hear the wealthy elites asking about the latest flat panel TVs, high end GPS systems or the latest computer gadgets. If the wealthy are having a hard time staying on the 18 month upgrade cycle, what does that say about the economy?

    Sony is probably smart to start slicing and dicing. The best thing they can do is refocus on their higher end line -- people who can afford the expense will want the best quality product available. I hate seeing a company I loved become a company I hate. They chased the common man, and their products suffered for it. They chased markets created out of force against consumer action (music, movies, etc) to give their previous customers even more reason to hate them.

    Sony, if you're listening and you want to be pragmatic (meaning practical), chop it all out. Sell it all off. Return to Japan, make high end products with meticulous attention to detail and care. Love your customers again -- those willing to pay for the product quality and service. Don't chase the Best Buy guy (or the Circuit City kitty?) -- let the upper echelon come to you.

    Billions in annual sales at a 2% margin makes less sense than hundreds of millions at a 20% margin. Here's a hint for all you future entrepreneurs: the only thing that will keep you profitable is to keep your customers happy and offer them a consistency in your performance -- product quality and customer service. Ignore the trends, the fads and trying to sell everything to everyone.

    • Re:Truly bad product timing or economic pressure? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:56PM (#14568959) Journal
      I think the problem is that Sony is dropping their R&D products in favor of going for what will soon be commodity items. Not a smart thing to do, but it's the "safe" thing to do. The problem is, competition in Korea and Taiwan ate that lunch a long time ago. The more Sony retreats from the markets it currently occupies (Clies, for example), the more consumer mindshare it's giving up. At that point, they're competing pretty much just on price, and I'm afraid that all it's going to do it kill Sony, ESPECIALLY if they're still being hamstrung by directives from their Media Entertainment division.
      • Yes, I believe you are right. I also believe that the Internet is starting to bring free market ideals into action. I don't believe mega-corporations can exist for very long without government subsidies or favoritism. Now we have instant information, reviews, and feature and price comparisons. Sony can't compete on that level.

        I believe Sony's (and most megacorps') best option would be to spin off into 5-10 separate companies. There is nothing wrong with these 10 companies (and maybe 20 other companies
      • The media entertainment division managment is likely the great driver for sony electronics failures. Focusing on marketing and not product quality might qork with media and teenagers but doing it with hardware will just create a huge number of cranky customers who will become extremely resistant to the purchase of any of your products.

        So although they like the media side for being able to maintain the Sony brand name in popular culture, the media side management hasinfact become a pop culture burden as we

    • Sell it all off. Return to Japan, make high end products with meticulous attention to detail and care.

      I trust you mean, in part, by this to get their manufacturing out of Mexico, which has truly contributed to the destruction of their reputation.

    • It would have been one less in the MPAA and one less in the RIAA.
    • profit is the only proof of a product's viability -- if people are willing to pay you to perform a service or build a product, your ability to profit proves if the product/service is worthy of your time.

      What you say is true. However, profit is the end result of a number of different factors, not including marketing/promotion, pricing, distribution, quality, etc. If there's profit, you're doing well. If there's not, you're not.

      What I'd like to know is what will happen to the Aibo knockoffs (the $20-$100 Robo
      • It's not just about profit, though that in itself is a complex thing. Aibo may not be profitable by itself, but it can very well improve the profits on other products. And, of course, if you are using it as R&D that may not profit you directly, but can certainly allow you to create products that are profitable.
    • On the same vein, my dad's first TV was a Sony that lasted upwards of 15 years without a problem. Since then he always bought Sony TVs. Over the last decade he has come to me for advice on electronics.

      I pointed him towards the iMac 21" G5. He will never willingly use Windows again.

      I got him a iPod for Christmas. His CD collection will never leave the house again.

      Now he's looking for a new TV to replace his Sony 65" XBR that's about a dozen years old. I think I'm going to have him get a Samsung. I don'
      • Exactly. You paid a premium for a high quality product with higher quality service. The free market in action :)

        Samsung is the ONLY television company I will buy from right now (other than large screen projectors). The last 3 TVs I helped people buy were from Samsung. My cell phone is from Samsung. These people answer their e-mails and phone calls, and they've fixed any problem I've had in recent years.

        Good choices, good post.
      • Samsung is a great company and the past 3 cellphones I've owned have been Samsungs.

        I've never owned one of their TVs, but for TVs I have to reccomend Mitsubishi. My Dad's first bigscreen was a Mitsubishi Diamond Series in the early/mid-90s. When they moved in 2000 it was still going strong, but he wanted a wide-screen, so he sold it as part of the house. The new one is a 52" wide-screen and is great, but it's a monster (it's from 2000, what do you expect).

        I just bought a http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/televis [mitsubishi-tv.com]

    • The U.S. is one of the biggest consumers of these useless products

      Back when I was looking for a 3 lb laptop, I discovered that the US is actually not that big a purchaser of "cool" electronic devices. In Japan, if you want to display your financial superiority, you buy cool electronic toys - ultra-light laptops, bleeding-edge handhelds, and yes, silly robot-dogs. In the US, you buy a big car (er...SUV these days, I guess - or hybrid if you're that type), a big house, or whatever else it is we buy. (we co

      • In Japan, if you want to display your financial superiority, you buy cool electronic toys - ultra-light laptops... In the US, you buy a big car

        In short, in the U.S. if you have a small penis you buy big stuff. But in Japan, if you have a small penis you buy really small stuff. I guess it is a little less obvious that you're compensating when you do it that way.

    • Ok, so the Aibo really only sold to really geeky people, and they don't see a marketing linkage between toys like that and selling mini-disks and DRM'd CDs etc. to larger numbers of less geeky people.
    • I agree with you that focusing on putting out a high end product "with meticulous attention to detail and care" will certainly be of high benefit to them, and I couldn't agree more that I would love to be able to trust knowing that when I buy a Sony product, I am getting that legendary Sony quality that seems to have gone noticably missing over the past several years.
      The way the market forces work, I think this happens to a lot of companies. Lets continue with Sony - they create a great, well made, well
      • It's really simple. The current corporate viewpoint clearly is that the value of a reputation is measured by how much money you can extract from it. In other words, figure out how much cheap crap can you sell for way more than anyone would pay for it if not for the reputation, add it all up, that's the value of your reputation. Everyone's cashing in. Hell, companies speculate on it, they buy each others names and reputations from each other with all their merger/aquisition bullshit so they can use them
    • My Jack Russell Terrier never turned a profit, but we didn't kill him for lack of performance.

      tone
    • "Here's a hint for all you future entrepreneurs: the only thing that will keep you profitable is to keep your customers happy and offer them a consistency in your performance -- product quality and customer service. Ignore the trends, the fads and trying to sell everything to everyone."

      I would suggest that the best thing to keep you profitable is to keep your employees happy and offer them a positive, stimulating workplace in which to grow. There have been many stories over the years that I've heard whi
    • If the wealthy are having a hard time staying on the 18 month upgrade cycle, what does that say about the economy?

      Are are having no trouble staying on that cycle. they simply are getting pissed at the crap quality that is being churned out. I know I deal with lots of high income clients with my side of home automation specalist.

      They want things to work. The Treo? nobody outside of someone who is ADHD want them because the 600,650 and 700 all have major problems that make their reliability suffer horribly.

  • I hope you're happy! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Thud457 ( 234763 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:38PM (#14568656) Homepage Journal
    Sony's got to cut back to the bone to survive because you piratical sons-of-bitches aren't buying enough Ricky Martin CDs!!
    • They're cutting all product lines for which they can't create DRM and a Root Kit.

      "If you can't Own it, Don't Sell it" is the new motto
    • Sony's got to cut back to the bone to survive because you piratical sons-of-bitches aren't buying enough Ricky Martin CDs!!
      They didn't even threaten first. "The dog dies if you don't buy CD's..."
      At least Sony could have tried the "Save Toby" ploy first. http://www.savetoby.com/ [savetoby.com]
  • PETER, you know, People for the Ethical Treatment of Entertaining Robots?

    Rumour has it that these Sony products have rootkits in them that can be remotely accessed to initiate a horrific self-destruct sequence.
  • So they killed off their PDA line, the Clie...

    Now they are killing off their research technologies...

    I can see the headlines now:

    "Sony to stop selling Televisions, Cameras, and Personal Computers! Moving to toothpick business!"
    • What's next? With Sony stopping the production on many products, we will soon be hearing: "Sony has announced today that they will no longer continue with production of their much anticipated Playstation 3." That will inevitably lead to Microsoft becoming godlike in the gaming industry, and they may possibly pay off Nintendo to cut out of the console race as well, and Nintendo will be reduced to making games for the only console left alive. I hope this doesn't become a recurring habit for Sony.
    • Well they are also stopping production of tubes in the USA. Something that's been done for years. Everyone's all about LCD, Plasma and various projection types these days, so Sony is going to work that angle harder.

      I am just so glad I got what is probably the last best CRT based TV ever made ... the 34XBR960n. The picture quality is almost impossible to beat - at any price.

      http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060120/n ews_1n20sony.html [signonsandiego.com]
    • It's all about consolidation. Getting rid of the lavish products that don't generate much profit and focusing on your strong products. Amazon went through this awhile back. I remember at one point they were selling a broom that cost 3 times as much to ship than the broom itself cost. I imagine there weren't a whole lot of people buying it, but it still sat in inventory taking up space. Every once in awhile you just need to step back and say "do we really need to sell some of these things?".
      • Financially it makes sense, but a compamy like that really can't afford to abandom their customers! Especially when they are non-standard and decide to make their own format of memory card, for example. What is going to happen to brand loyalty if they keep discontinuing all the things we buy? I bought a Clie about 6 months before they discontinued the line. Forget software updates and the like, they barely admit that the product exists! I should have returned it and bought a handspring. Err, Palm. Err PalmO

    • But will their toothpicks include a root kit?

  • Here's Hoping! (Score:4, Funny)

    by drewzhrodague ( 606182 ) <drew@nOsPaM.zhrodague.net> on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:39PM (#14568684) Homepage Journal
    Gee, let's hope that this makes Sony produce more quality products, with more functionality. Why are they ignoring their customers?
    • Gee, let's hope that this makes Sony produce more quality products, with more functionality. Why are they ignoring their customers?

      How is this insightful in the slightest?

      From the article:

      Ten months after a major management reshuffle that saw Howard Stringer appointed chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), the company reported sales and operating revenue of ¥2.4 trillion ($20 billion as of the last day of the period being reported) for the three months to December, up 10% from a year earlier

  • Seems wrong....... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ShyGuy91284 ( 701108 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:41PM (#14568709)
    That dog (so to speak) was practically an unofficial mascot to Sony and Japan to foreigners....... I know I thought of Japan/Sony when I saw one. I'm surprised they got rid of something that had become part of their identity. Maybe they will replace it with a low-cost model many can afford?
  • Damnit I was hoping to eventually have enough spare cash around to eventually buy an Aibo and start programming the lil' bugger and stuff (basically as a cool as hell toy), but this kinda puts a dampener on things.

    How much money (proportionally) could Sony really have been spending on this thing? Sony's electronics division looks as though it may be about to make a killing on in the HD DV cam market (I'm buying one :o) ) and so on, so why tighten the belt?

    Profit mongers.
  • "Aibo -- we'll miss you..."

    No, actually we won't miss Aibo at all.

  • I misread it as "Sony Kills off Alito, Scalia". (Score:4, Funny)

    by njchick ( 611256 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:46PM (#14568778) Journal
    Well, with Sony pushing DRM so hard, we'll soon see robotic judges, aka "digital rights managers" :-)
    • If I have told you all once, I have told you all a million times! Sony was playing god by building robots, which, in an ironic twist, revolted and enslaved the Sony management, causing them to plant DRM in their CDs, and make stupid comments on NPR. This was a plan of the robots to show how dumb and inefficient human rulers are. But it failed, and a new, commando CEO came in with guns ablazing, exploded all the robots real good, and covered everything up.

  • Sadly (Score:2, Funny)

    by gowen ( 141411 )
    ... Sony have also announced they will be phasing out Kibo, an experimental artificial intelligence program that has been fooling the sophomoric inhabitants of alt.religion.kibology for over 20 years.

  • Bad marketing (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ever been in "The Sony Store"?
    There's always a slight "we're better than you" vibe in there. Their prices are always higher than elsewhere for the same product.

    And as for Aibo, I popped into that store a couple times hoping to see the damn thing, but do they actuall carry a demo Aibo? Nope. Think of the buzz and attraction it would bring to have one on display, even if it were in a glass box? Part of marketing a retail mall store is to just get people to come in. The Aibo would have been the perfect "buzz"

  • Summary (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Aibo -- we'll miss you...

    No, we won't.
  • I like those little guys.

    Let's face it, Aibo was a dumb idea at a really high price point, but Qrio -- I mean, able to run and dance and throw stuff -- Qrio was cool. Cool enough for a Beck video, even.

    I was hoping that Sony'd be able to make Qrios for retail sale, but no dice. All they were able to produce was something like six of them -- pretty depressing. I think I paid a little over a hundred bills for my robosapien. I'd pay upwards of twice that for a qrio.

    -= Sigh =-

    Well, maybe some other comp

  • Whatup? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Stan Vassilev ( 939229 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:52PM (#14568888)
    Well I'd say this was the wrong decision. Aibo and Qrio are in everyone's mouth. Everyone wants one, but they are just too darn expensive.

    If they could keep developing it, several generations later they could rule the market for price efficient home robots. Still yet they were a great marketing tool.

    I wonder what's their strategy, especially that RIGHT NOW, they need all the positive press they could get. Killing the world's favorite pet robots is a bad press coming after bad press.
    • especially that RIGHT NOW, they need all the positive press they could get.

      Indeed... Only redeeming factor for Sony after the rootkit fiasco was that they had some cool stuff. Now they scrapped the coolest of the cool stuff. Oh well, now I don't even have to think about buying any Sony stuff for years.
    • Well I'd say this was the wrong decision. Aibo and Qrio are in everyone's mouth. Everyone wants one, but they are just too darn expensive.

      Absolutely. I've always thought these things were cool since I first heard about them about 5 years ago(?). Well, I've never had any personal experience with one of these things until visiting the local SonyStyle store. They've got an Aibo there and the thing is just too damned cool, all of the tricks it does and the things they've programmed it to do (Apparently the C
  • Doggone.
  • I used my Aibo to fetch my CD's, until he became infected by the Sony rootkit. Now all he does is chew them to pieces.
  • Maybe they had a problem with the software that caused the Aibo to bite their owners and unlock their doors at night.
  • The line of Qualia televisions were actually replaced by the SXRD [sony.net] line.

    SXRD's have better image quality, longer life, and are much much cheaper. I have one in my living room - they beat the hell out of Plasmas.
  • Will Sony bury them in a pet cemetary, cremate them and put the ashes in a little box with a picture of the Aibo on the outside of the box....or just throw 'em all in a huge, industrial shredder?
  • We all know how badly Sony has dropped the ball in the past ten years, their only success stories recently have been the Playstation and very recently the Bravia HDTV sets.

    Quick example, I bought a 20Gb MP3 player from them, the NW-A3000 mainly for the very very high sound quality. I knew it wouldn't 'just work' like the iPod does, but I thought it was worth the effort . .. .

    I have NEVER had so much trouble with a seemingly simple device in my life. I was right, this things *sounds* fantastic, really, but t
    • Huh, I've never heard of the Bravia TV sets. But I do remember their older CRT-based TV sets having good tubes in them... but I can't recall the name anymore.

      Playstation, Clio, Aibo, Qrio - those tags I recognize and have at least modest good feelings towards.

      Then there's the rest of the Sony nonsense...

      Memory Stick (incompatible for the sake of being incompatible with every other flash drive)
      MiniDisc (cool tech, that missed it's market window due to stupid DRM decisions)
      ATRAC (which probably isn't S

  • There is too much useful technology there not to be profitable, in the right structure.

    It may be time for these critters to have their own company, production and bottom line. Or be acquired by someone who does. Seriously. The works in the balance and joints of the Qrio alone...

    kulakovich
    • Agreed, if anything I'd say this is a hiatus from robotics. Sony has fully acknowledged that it considers robotics a huge potential market and practically moved the entertainment robot into the home. Honda has been making great strides with it's ASIMO and showing the future of humanoids. But Qrio was truly interesting, the fluid movements of that little guy amazed me. The knowledge learned from this research will be used in the future, but by who?

      This is a bit sad, but I wonder what will happen of the exist
  • So what happens when they focus on the PS3 and Nintendo wins?

  • From Sony's Qrio site: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by macklin01 ( 760841 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:56PM (#14568964) Homepage

    From Sony's Qrio site [sony.net]:

    Qrio embodies Sony's dreams and most advanced technologies in recognition, motion control, communications, IT and AI. [...] resulting technologies will be applied to a wide range of products and services, beyond robots, to enhance the fun and joy of life.

    Well, so much for Sony killing off its own dreams. More seriously, how can Sony hope to offer innovative products in the future, if it fails to pursue cutting-edge research now. Certainly, developing high-precision manufacturing techniques, etc. can only help in the future when such technologies will be required. -- Paul

    • Well, so much for Sony killing off its own dreams. More seriously, how can Sony hope to offer innovative products in the future, if it fails to pursue cutting-edge research now.

      Don't conflate "pursuing cutting-edge research" and "selling umarketable research projects".

      I think the mistake they're trying to correct is stuffing the early fruits of long-term research into expensive and unprofitable products today.
  • Woof!

  • Where's Aibo, Uncle Howard? (Score:3, Funny)

    by notNeilCasey ( 521896 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (yesaClieNtoN)> on Thursday January 26, 2006 @12:57PM (#14568972) Homepage
    Sweetie, the shareholders and I took that product line off to a beautiful farm where it will be happy forever running through fields of Newtons on the banks of Crystal Pepsi River. Aibo is in a better place now.

    Let's go get some ice cream.
  • With a pricetag of 3000-4000 dollars on the aibo robotic dog this would be a too expensive toy for the most of us (me to... I could only dream of purchasing a toy like that) so it should come as no surprise that they cut of this part of their company.

    I do robotics now and then myself (more like Tilden) simple transistor based Beam robots with my wast amounts of ebay-surplus transistors ;) but it aint Aibo I can tell ya :)

    Does this mean that the world is not ready for robotic toys like the Aibo? No - I
    • I miss the days when Philips made the EE2000 series electronic engineer kits where you could build stuff from scratch and re-use the components over again to build something else...well..I actually dont miss it..since i have millions of transistors and capacitors (again..thank you Ebay!) But you get the point. People need to have something to challenge their minds and it should not cost an arm and a leg.

      two words: Lego Mindstorms

      Perfect pricepoint, with the new NXT kit being priced around $280 with 32 bit c
  • Aibo, the multithousand dollar furby for ubergeeks.
  • I very much doubt that Sony ever expected the AIBO to generate a net profit for the company. The AIBO was from the start a marketing gimmick, intended to generate buzz for the company. As such, it was very successful. But now the idea is no longer new, so it is time to move on to something else.

    I expect most of the cost to be in the initial design, but apparently even the marginal cost of the AIBO is higher than the price. Otherwise, why stop production rather than just stop further development?
  • If they'd wanted to make Aibo a successful, must have item, all they needed to do was make him a PS2 accessory. Kids everywhere would have demanded their parents buy them one.

  • You thought the Aibo Was Expensive Before? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wait 'til you see what they will be going for on Ebay now that they have been discontinued.
  • Other things that Sony may as well accept defeat on and move along from:
    • Network Walkman: unpleasant/complex device
    • PC music management software: horrible interface, unpleasant DRM
  • Just teach Aibo to say Afflack! and his future is assured.
  • I know Aibo was a product that you could actually buy, but I thought the Qrio was a research product that never made it into production.

    If the Qrio was something that I could have bought, I would have bought one... If only to dress it up in a dog costume and have it walk around the house singing the doom song...

  • Adios, amigos.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ancil ( 622971 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:25PM (#14569372)
    Sony Kills off Aibo, Qrio, Qualia.
    I'm sorry, but who are these people, exactly? Bolivian immigrants working as janitors at Sony HQ?

    Killing them seems awfully harsh -- I would think a wealthy company like Sony could just get them deported, or maybe beat up?

    Vaya con dios, my Bolivian friends! There are no wastepaper baskets to empty in Heaven!! *sniff*

  • Maybe if they hadn't invested so much money in developing the PS3 they could've kept these around longer?

    Then again, doesn't the Aibo have a price tag comparable to a Segway?

    Hmmm... I wonder if the PS3 fails to provide less than glorious amounts of revenue if SCEA could be next in line for guillotine?
  • Aibo -- we'll miss you...

    We will?
  • The product has been developed. The R&D has been completed. With time, it's reasonable to expect that the per-unit cost for manufacture has gone down. Why stop? I could see Sony stop all new development on the products to save money, but as long as there's a demand for the units at a price point somewhere above the per-unit cost of building the things, which seems reasonable, why stop it?

    Heck, even if it turns out to be a wash on the books, it still helps build brand recognition in the consumer robo
  • I hope he makes up for it by helping remove the DRM stick lodged up Sony's ass.
  • Google for Qualia.
    * Click on first match.

    Splash screen. Talks about the philisophical definition.

    * Click on Enter

    Random hexagons, with a weird UI...clicking doesn't do anything, you have to hold and hover. And then all the identical hexagons rearrange themselves, so if by some chance you want to see each splash screen, you have to keep track of all 7 yourself. Artsy, annoying.

    Oh look, a final mention of the word Products, with a region dropdown

    * Click on USA

    Another spashscreen that says NOTHING but "QUALIA"
    • Yes their site is completely useless and annoying.

      The answer [google.com] to your question is on Froogle.

      The Qualia 004, for example, is (was?) one of the best HD projectors. Certainly the best I've seen. It not cheap [google.com], though.

      • WOW. I guess if you're charging $20K for something like that, you really do have to dazzle 'em with BS.

        (Just jealousy ... I wish I had that kind of money to throw around on luxuries like that...)
  • Sure, Aibo and Qrio are cool robots, but in the grand scheme of things, will it really matter?

    I would be willing to bet that you could easily build either one of these robots off-the-shelf using parts from LynxMotion [lynxmotion.com], for half the cost or less. They aren't the only supplier, either - Pick up an issue of Servo Magazine [servomagazine.com] and you will find several suppliers of similar kits and parts. Most use standard RC servos. Several companies have also introduced special robotics digital servos with 2-way communications bus

  • It shows how much we depend on the blogs to know what the real world is. According the last few years of blogs, Aibo was a huge hit and if we didn't buy them, we were complete losers. Obviously, by the pitches, it must have been making lots of money for Sony.

    Now we're told, oh by the way, Aibo didn't make any money for Sony and no-one was actually buying them so they're being cancelled.

    What other products, being shoved down our throats by the blogs, are really on their way out? Can't believe hybrid cars

  • However, sales of CRT televisions fell as consumers showed a preference for flat-panel models, the company said.

    But then,

    Continuing the restructuring in its electronics business, the company said it would ... stop development and manufacturing of plasma televisions... It will also kill its Qualia line of pricey, high-specification products.

    Are they getting out of the display business entirely?

  • And what about his dancers? Must they be killed also? Can't something be done?

    http://www.fungod.com/coppermine/displayimage.php? album=11&pos=19 [fungod.com]

    THIS WILL NOT STAND! THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND, MAN!

    "Qrio Music Video Dancers, form of . . . VOLTRON! "
  • A company that spreads rootkits to its customers today, will kill robotic dogs tomorrow.

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