Is PS3 going to be Sony's downfall ?

PS3 will launch in Australia sometime in March, 23rd of March to be exact, just 5 months shy from the US and Japan launch. Launch price is $999.95 with the 60GB hard disk. Retailers have been taking pre-orders and offering bonuses to come with it. Dick Smith will invite you to a PS3 launch party with celebrities with $5 pre-order, BIG W will give you an extra controller, Toy's R Us will give you a game for half price and many more.

But that's not what I'm going to talk about here. Instead, I want to look at Sony's downfall. Future doesn't look so good with this Japanese electronic giant. Why ? Because Sony is not delivering the 'goods' anymore.

Sony has always been a popular brand. They had a long standing in TVs, Hi-Fis, LCDs, DVDs and so on. But what they like to do is to create a revolutionary product. They achieved this with their Walkman several years ago, gaming industry with PS1 and PS2, and now with their Blu-Ray technology. However, they are slightly losing their touch. Walkman has not been keeping up in the digital music industry, and now PS3 seems to fail the games industry as well.

Sony's downfall seem to start when they recalled thousands of laptop batteries that they supply to other companies (such as Dell, Apple). Apparantly, the batteries can overheat and you can fry an egg while browsing the internet. Some might think that this is an innovation but not for people who puts their laptop on their lap.

Sony then decided to make PS3 launch simultaneously (well, almost) worldwide, Japan would launch first (of course), North America after, then lastly Europe and Australia. I think this is a good marketing strategy to show that PS3 is not region-locked, meaning they can play all games coming from all over the place. This was suppose to happen on November last year but then Sony doesn't have enough screws to bolt the PS3 together so they postpone Europe and Australia's launch.

Even with separate launch, Sony wasn't able to fully ship PS3 to their loyal supporters on the launch day at US and Japan. So eBay had to take over, PS3 was seen to reach $6000 during launch.

But for us in Australia, all we can do was wait. Wait until the launch day is announced, wait for the specifications to be downgraded. What ? Yes, the PS3 specifications for Australia has been downgraded. They will not include a 'chip' that enables PS3 to backward play PS2 games. But instead they will use a software to emulate this capability. Arghhhh, for $1000, you expect Sony to give you a royal treatment but instead Sony is giving you junk. I'm upset by Sony. I've always backed them all the way but now, I'm seriously considering my position.

Maybe closer to the release date, we will get a new announcement. "The Australian PS3 will not have a cover and you must always hold if you want it to work" or something like that. Sigh. You lost my vote Sony.

Anyway, back to Sony. This kind of behaviour is unusual of Sony (well, it's not unusual behaviour for a corporation that seeks profit at all cost). So, is this the start of their downfall ? Will Sony brand be less known by people in a few years time ? Will PS3 be the cause ? Will you start buying Toshiba ? Will you support HD-DVD ?

Well, I hope Sony will not go from bad to worse and plunge to their death. I still have some hope for you. But for the PS3, you definitely smashed all my hope and expectations.