I think Sony's pathologies are somewhat different (although software is clearly a weakness). What makes for blockbuster consumer friendly technologies is often

I think Sony's pathologies are somewhat different (although software is clearly a weakness). What makes for blockbuster consumer friendly technologies is often fundamentally opposed to what makes big content happy. As the influence of big content grew at Sony, they began to get veto power on future platforms. The old Sony had gone to the Supreme Court to fight for consumers right to record tv shows. The new Sony bet big on the profit maximizing MD platform while mp3 friendly CD-R's and later iPods ate their lunch. They even led the reactionary effort to save big content's profits with rootkits. Sony's biggest bright spot in the 90's was the Playstation business but even here we see the same sorts of problems cropping up -- PS3 had to push Blue Ray, late to online gaming, the Hotz fiasco.