Sony Says Eee PC Signals "Race To the Bottom"

Alex Dekker writes "Sony's Mike Abary says in an interview, 'If [Asus's Eee PC] starts to do well, we are all in trouble.' Presumably by 'we' he means all the hardware manufacturers who sell over-priced, full-fat laptops. And he's not going to be too pleased when he sees the Linux-powered, sub-$200 Elonex One. Looks like what's bad for Sony may be good for the consumer." The CNet article mentions that a version of the Eee running XP is available in Japan now and will be coming to the US within weeks.

Comments

Re:About dang time...

[evilklown]

I'm so glad someone finally said one of the key phrases in technology advancement:

Looks like what's bad for Sony may be good for the consumer.

Show of hands?

[bondjamesbond]

OK, quick show of hands of those who feel sorry for Sony. One guy wayyy in the back. You can put your hand down, sir. Thanks.

Re:When do we get these affordable laptops?

[psychodelicacy]

And this is the cool thing - it's a boy magnet! I get it out in the pub or Starbucks or wherever, and attract all those furtive glances that my looks alone sadly never procured for me. I even have some guy come up to me in the pub wanting to try out my Eee. So girls, forget the Apple that says "Hi - I like pretty things and ponies!" Get an Eee instead, and men will fall at your feet.

Well, okay geeks will fall at your feet, but in my case that's the required demographic...

Re:Was that a blog, or an ad for Sony?

[The Great Pretender]

And when the race reaches the bottom they'll find Sony there, lounging around in big piles of their failed products, sipping Mojitos.

So that's what Sony says is it?

[Panaqqa]

Hmm. It seems to me that rootkitting your customer's computers is more like the REAL race to the bottom.

Re:Was that a blog, or an ad for Sony?

[Spinlock_1977]

You read the whole thing? You are sooooooooo doomed. While you were doing all that reading, Sony installed a rootkit on your machine.

Re:Was that a blog, or an ad for Sony?

[electrosoccertux]

They consistently make high quality tech products. Blu-ray (despite being DRM crippled) will probably be the next CD. I sure hope it is.

I have no dog in the disk format wars but can Blu-ray's success really be chalked up to engineering? There are stories aplenty about how Sony paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the movie studios to get them to switch. This seems more like marketing (or something more nefarious) than technical excellence and doesn't support your argument very well.

Of course not. The important thing is that they weren't pushing a crappy format that was insufficient for our movie viewing needs. Toshiba, on the other hand, would have us adopt a format that can't hold Return of the King in 1080p on one disk.

Re:When do we get these affordable laptops?

[Anonymous Coward]

Any girl sporting a triple-E is going to get looks from the guys!

Re:When do we get these affordable laptops?

[Cal Paterson]

I'm sure you think you're being funny, but please just stop.

Re:Was that a blog, or an ad for Sony?

[mikiN]

In South Korea, only old people brag about their network connection speeds. (^_^)

BTW, I'm on a trunked long-distance wireless link with 8 other households, and get 150Kbps down/20 Kbps up on a good day.