“Early in 2005, more than a dozen Sony employees from the company’s consumer electronics divisions gathered for an unusual meeting in the tiny Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters of digital media start-up Kinoma. Kinoma Chief Executive Peter Hoddie, an Apple Computer alumnus, had been put in charge of high-profile Sony software development, including the Connect digital music project. For a company historically averse to using outside technology, this was a significant step,” John Borland reports for CNET News. “For more than two hours, the group met in the futon-lined public area of Kinoma’s offices. According to attendees, Hoddie gave a sales pitch, but not much more. When asked for details on the technology they’d be using for Connect, Hoddie declined to provide them, and the meeting turned contentious before breaking up, employees said.”
“Why did the electronics giant turn so uncharacteristically to an outsider for technology so critical to its future? Past and present insiders at Sony say Apple’s meteoric rise in music has left top Sony executives with both respect and envy for Apple’s products, even while they resist becoming dependent on Microsoft’s digital music technology,” Borland reports. “Kinoma and Hoddie appealed to their envy of Apple and their aversion to Microsoft.”
“The software that finally emerged pleased few. In a move virtually unprecedented in Sony’s history, executives in the company’s U.S. operations refused to release the software in their market. The European division didn’t have the same option, and Connect was released there and in Japan in November 2005,” Borland reports. “Customers began reporting critical bugs, sometimes rising to complete unusability. By January, Sony issued an apology to its customers, and recommended that if the repeated updates weren’t working, people should simply download the old pre-Connect SonicStage software. Executives looked at fixing the project, and decided against it. Patches were released until April, when development on the Connect software stopped altogether.”
The whole sordid, wonderful story is in Borland’s full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bruce” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Certain quotes just get funnier with each passing day: “Look at the resources at [Sony’s] disposal. They own all the intellectual property and they have the retail channel. It will be hard for Apple to maintain its market share.” – Douglas Krone, CEO of Dynamism.com. (source: NY Times, April 19, 2004)
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Related articles:
Sony advises: Do not use Sony Connect software, music application causes ‘major problems’ – January 23, 2006
Sony reorgs floundering Connect digital music outfit – January 20, 2006
Sony’s new Windows-only ‘Connect Player’ bears eerie resemblance to Apple iTunes – September 09, 2005
Sony Connect President in wake of iPod nano: ‘we will accelerate our challenge’ to Apple iPod – September 08, 2005
Sony forms ‘Connect Company’ to challenge Apple’s market-dominating iPod+iTunes – December 28, 2004
Apple iTunes Music Store vs. Sony Connect is no contest, Apple wins with ease – May 09, 2004
NY Times pans Sony Connect debut: ‘maybe they ought to call it Sony Disconnect’ – May 05, 2004
Analyst: Sony Connect will make it ‘hard for Apple to maintain its market share’ – April 19, 2004