Apple vs. Sony
from the how-should-stuff-work? dept
An interesting positioning of the battle between Sony and Apple for the home entertainment system of the future. Apple wants such a system to have a computer (a Mac, obviously) as the hub. Sony, on the other hand sees a more “peer to peer” environment where each device is separate, but can communicate with any other device. The author suggests that a combined approach may be the best. Each company’s approach certainly makes sense, considering where its revenue comes from. I can see advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Overall, I think that Apple’s strategy probably makes the most sense – but they’re limited in relying on the Mac as their central device.
Comments on “Apple vs. Sony”
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Are you such a rabid anti-mac person that you have made yourself a complete moron as well ? Does it really matter whether it’s a mac,sgi,pc,xbox, whatever and the center of this ‘future’ ? How is a mac ‘limiting’ in a concept ? Whatever works, works. Get over it.
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Man. Where do you people come from? Is Slashdot shipping in their kiddies who love to jump to conclusions and start trashing people without bothering to wait for a clue?
I thought by now I’d gotten rid of my “anti-mac” image.
That post is not even remotely anti-mac. Here’s the simple point: Less than 5% of computer owners own a mac. Thus, Apple has – in many ways – limited their home entertainment systems to that 5% of the market.
That was not a comment on the quality of the Mac. If you actually read Techdirt on a regular basis you would have seen me yelling at anyone who choses one platform over the other and telling them that “whatever works, works”.
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heh. if you ignore the stupidity for a second, it can be pretty comforting to live in a society where ridiculous inanities like “representing” your OS choice matter so much to some individuals.
in other words: cheers, your reward for publishing a great tech/biz log is an ever-increasing number of moron readers. congrats, btw.
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Nope, you haven’t gotten rid of your anti-mac image yet. And yes, apple does have less that 5% of the market but ‘the market’ you refer to is a market for computers. If I’m buying into the whole ‘entertainment hub’ idea, odds are it’s going to based around a new system, not my 1yr old PC. At one time I assumed this would be a BeOS machine but ….
And yes, I read this page regularly (I find a reasonable article or two on occasion so I keep coming back) and have noted that even though you try not to be anti-apple, you can’t seem to get through any write up about mac’s which doesn’t end with the tone of ‘but it’s a mac’. Work harder to remove the anti-mac stain please.
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But it’s not being based around a new system. Apple is selling iPods to people who have a Mac already.
If someone wants a new home entertainment system that is going to be based aroudn their computer, I don’t expect them to go out and buy a new $2,000 (or even $1,000 machine) just to be the center of it. They want to build one what they already have…
I have absolutely nothing against Apple. I’m just saying that most people I know who have a PC now, wouldn’t suddenly run out and buy a Mac just to set up some home entertainment hub when they could just as easily build it out of cheaper components from Sony – or based on their current PC.
advantage: Sony
Apple and Sony have a history of making, to use the S Jobs cliche, “insanely great” consumer electronics stuff. The primary difference between the two, I would argue, is that Sony prices their stuff to sell whereas Apple stuff always seems overpriced.
This is from a man who owns two macs and zero PCs.
No Subject Given
Props to the ‘representing your OS’ guy; I’ll have to remember that one. 😉
As far as the digital hub idea goes…I think it’s a non-starter. The things we have today will slowly meld into a single device so gently that we’ll never know what hit us. Who will make these devices? I’d be on your current group of receiver and set-top makers as most likely, followed by innvoators like Moxi and Apple. It’s hard to break into the consumer electronics game, even if you already make computers…
– d
Neither
The impression I have is that neither Apple nor Sony’s approach will really work, but a hybrid will. Making every device peer-to-peer is going to make things too difficult to use, while routing everything through your existing home computer makes even less sense: if I want to transfer a song from my portable MP3 player to my car, why should I have to go through my home computer? What might work is to define some new intermediate hubs that simplify the whole peer-to-peer mess but which are simpler than a full blown computer.
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people aint gonna buy ANY of this crap. its a recession. people are UNEMPLOYED with NO SIGN of a job, and its gonna get WORSE,,,MUCH worse.
think more along the lines of buying food and hoping to make your mortgage.. these toys are just a vestige of DOW 12000 and NAZ 5000. 1% of people will afford, the masses wont
Re: Re: How to appear less anti-mac
All you need to do is move the last sentence, about being “limited”, to somewhere in the middle of the blurb. Then the new last sentence would be about Apple making more sense, and everyone would officially think you are pro-Apple!
msykes