Why Sony blew it

One of the really baffling things is why smart technology companies don’t seem to understand how self-defeating an obsession with intellectual property can be. So here’s something new.

‘Father of PlayStation’ says Sony blew it on media players is the headline on a fascinating story on SiliconValley.com. It continues: “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. 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. Now, Sony’s divisions are finally beginning to work together and share a common agenda, Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.

‘It’s just starting,’ he told reporters. ‘We are growing up.’

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.”