Doom and Gloom, Doom and Gloom! Every company goes through a period of bad times and it is Sony's turn right now. They tried to put the cart before the horse and found that not only did the not go anywhere, they started traveling backwards.
Perhaps a smooth launch of the PS3 on Nov 17 might help Sony start moving in the right direction. Perhaps when the newer BR releases start coming out in November on 50gb and using VC-1 or MPEG4 will their future start looking better.
Every company thinks they can do no wrong. M$ was bit by the first XBOX -- lost over 1/2 a billion dollars. The 360 is a considerably better product. Ford is loosing their pants. You can not keep building cars that get crappy milage and expect people to buy them when gas is $3 a gallon. Walmart thought that they were big enough to overcome any lawsuit. Guess they were wrong on that one.
Sony thought that they could do no wrong so when things went wrong they just kept moving thinking they would get not get hit by any debis. Well, they missed on that one too and are now paying for it. I hope the PS3 has few problems and the new BR movies start impressing (early reviews say that they will). If not, not only will BR lose in a big way but also Sony may lose its status as a great manufacturer of goods. To Japan, that would be a serious loss. To the consumer, maybe a bigger one.
The market needs good competition always. That is what brings new products to the market and lowers prices so that we all can enjoy new technologies. But all companies need to do a better job of quality in the manufacturing process and lately that does not seem to be happening lately.