What’s going on behind the scenes between Apple and Sony?
Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 12:55 PM EDT"Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment content, the head of Sony Corp.'s video-game unit acknowledged Thursday," The Associated Press reports.
"Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said he and other Sony employees have been frustrated for years with management's reluctance to introduce products like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, mainly because the Tokyo company had music and movie units that were worried about content rights," AP reports. "High-ranking Sony officials have rarely publicly said their proprietary views were a mistake. Kutaragi, who has long been viewed as a candidate to lead Sony, was unusually direct in acknowledging Sony had made an error and blaming proprietary concerns from its entertainment division. Sony's music players initially did not support MP3 files and only played Sony's own format called Atrac." Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: This is nothing new. The internal conflict within Sony was reported by Wired Magazine which we noted in our article two years and three days ago on January, 17, 2003: "Wired calls iPod the 21st-century Walkman; says iPod revolutionizing consumer electronics - January 17, 2003
Of interest, today in a column about Apple's iLife '05, The New York Times' David Pogue writes, "When Steve Jobs unveiled iLife '05 last week at the Macworld Expo, his presentation featured a strange, halting appearance by the Sony Electronics president, Kunitake Ando. Mr. Ando didn't announce any new products or unveil any new collaboration with Apple. But the weirdness of the whole appearance has fueled speculation that there's something going on between the companies that we don't know about." Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Are we seeing signs of forms being constructed and concrete being poured for a foundation for something Sony is going to debut soon or something Apple and Sony are going to do together soon? Could it be a music deal, or Vaio-related (Mac OS X), or both, or something else, or nothing at all? Take a look at Steve Jobs' Macworld Expo keynote presentation, at about 57:37, where Jobs says, "You know, we do work very closely with Sony on digital still cameras and these new camcorders, which is really great. And who knows? Maybe someday, computers and music, too."
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple embarrassing Sony as iPods take Japan by storm - November 28, 2004
Report says Apple's Steve Jobs offered Sony an iTunes Music Store deal - September 03, 2004
Apple iPod killing Sony on its own turf; 6 of top 8 music players in Japan are iPod models - August 19, 2004
Washington Post: Sony's internet music service 'is an embarrassment to the company that gave the world the Wlakman - May 29, 2004
NY Times pans Sony Connect debut: 'maybe they ought to call it Sony Disconnect' - May 05, 2004
Analysts: Sony vs. Apple 'likely to clash for years, but will likely end in detente' - May 05, 2004
Analyst: Sony and Apple marriage 'would make no sense' - March 05, 2004
Sony CEO says he 'would consider buying Apple Computer' - March 07, 2003
The Economist: Apple is now Sony's teacher - February 27, 2003
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Sony so much wants Apple Pie