Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection

There was a time, when Sony’s brand represented quality and innovation, but over the last decade, the company has stopped innovating and has instead launched one product failure after another. Now after seeing consumers begin to adopt Sling Media’s place shifting technology, the company has set their sites on “revolutionizing” the place shifting industry by relaunching their LocationFree technology. This technology has been around for over two years, yet Sony hasn’t spent a lot of money marketing the service. Sensing that they are losing important ground to Orb and to Sling Media, the company is making a new push to highlight this product.

While I am a fan of placeshifting, there are a lot of reasons why I won’t be buying into Sony’s latest marketing hype. First and foremost is that I don’t trust them. This is a company that secretly sold root kits when consumers paid honest money for their music and which is now forcing a dangerous format war in the HDTV DVD universe because they want to monopolize the HDTV DVD industry. Sony is not about opening up their content so that consumers can use it, they are more interested in selling Sony products. Case in point, if I were to purchase a LocationFree TV, I can’t stream the shows on my Audioxvox SMT 5600 cell phone. I can stream Sling or Orb on it, but not Sony. I need to buy a PSP with no voice technology built into it, if I actually want to catch a Lakers game on the go.

I guess if I had a PSP this wouldn’t be as significant an issue, but if I had a PSP I wouldn’t need placeshifting to begin with because I’d have video games to keep me entertained while I’m carrying that brick around with me. Another problem with Sony’s approach to placeshifting is the reported price that they want to charge consumers. Ten years ago, Sony may have stood for quality, but after losing their cultural relevance to the iPod, they will continue to lose market share to Samsung, if they think that they can price their products at the high end of the consumer electronics food chain. With an estimated price of $200 – $250. Location”Free” TV isn’t going to be cheap. Considering that you can stream Orb for free or you can buy a Slingbox at Best Buy for $150, Sony’s decision to lead the placeshifting revolution at a higher price point isn’t going to gain them any market share, although it will certainly make sure that product stays profitable for the company.

While I think it’s neat that Sony is embracing placeshifting instead of trying to sue the technology, I think that they still have a long ways to go if they want to earn my consumer electronic buck. Until the company can demonstrate that they are committed to using to technology to open up content to the world instead of restricting it, there is no way that I’m placeshifting this revolution.

Posted on September 6th, 2006 by Davis
Filed under: Slingbox