[lbo-talk] As Sony wobbles, Samsung rises

[Eugene Vilensky]

For all their chip fabrication prowess, they have this bizarre sense
that Sony products only need to function as compliments to other Sony
products, i.e., producing their own Memory Sticks format, the new UMD
drive format, the until-recent inability of their hard-drive based mp3
players to actually play mp3s.

In fact, there was a Wall Street Journal story on how great Kodak is
doing in digital cameras because they source from off-the-shelf
manufacturers rather than developing their own chips ala Canon and
Sony.  Buried in the story is a simple fact that Canon and Sony sell
more cameras than Kodak, respectively.  Why do they write
self-contracting economic cheerleading stories like that?