California Dreamin' Sony Style

摘要

Incorporated in Aibo, the cute, silvertoned pet robot dog that went on sale June 1, was much that resonated with the history of its maker, Japan's Sony Corporation. For instance, the novel coupling of "entertainment" and "robot" recalled the pairing of "personal" and "stereo" in the Sony Walkman two decades earlier. There was the "Memory Stick" lodged under Aibo's tail, a new data storage medium about the size of a piece of chewing gum that could someday become as ubiquitous as that other Sony invention, the 3.5″ floppy disk. And Aibo's rechargeable lithium-ion batteries were yet another Sony original, developed in this $50 billion giant's seemingly never-ending quest for smaller, faster, friendlier consumer electronics products.