1/27/2006

Sony stops production of Aibo and Qrio robots
TG Daily:…Sony is cutting production of their Aibo and Qrio entertainment robots… Sony’s corporate website and show that product has stopped for both the lovable Aibo robotic dog and the upright Qrio humanoid robot…more...

According to page six of Sony’s Q3 financial report (PDF format) both the hyper-cute and functionally worthless robots were “terminated”. Sony is on slow death spin — management is driving the once great company into the ground and they’re looking for ways to save money. The Aibo and Qrio robots were both huge money losers for Sony so they were the first to go. As I mentioned before, the AIBO was not even all that much fun. We had an AIBO at work, I’ve noticed that even the engineers preferred playing around a homemade cardboard Aibo better than the ‘real’ Aibo robot. The fake cardboard Aibo had a lot more character.

Whoa! Wait just a darm minute. The rest-of-the-story is that those 3Q reports showed big profit when more losses were rightfully expected from those boneheads at Sony. See How Turned Around Is Sony? (Business Week, Jan 27 )

Reminder: See the Qrio robot in the earlier 3Yen report: The Beck video “Please Enjoy” .