Apple vs Sony vs Dell

People love the David and Goliath struggle of Apple vs Microsoft. In the past the two companies competed to build the first popular GUI desktop. Apple won that battle but lost the war. Today the two companies are very different and it's not really honest to compare Apple and Microsoft.

In the digital lifestyle war it's a competition between Apple, Sony, and the new five hundred pound gorilla Dell. Microsoft is in the background still trying to understand the market while Apple is making real money. It appears again that Apple has won the battle. But will they win the war?

Apple vs Sony
Sony has been one of the few computer companies to focus on style as much as Apple. Sony produced the first PowerBooks for Apple and I've often thought if Apple disappeared I'd by a Sony notebook. But they never had the elegance of Apple. They suffer from feature creep. Too many buttons, too many lights.

Sony has competing interests since they own a lot of music. They where afraid to come out with a mp3 player for fear of eating into their music sales. Now they are starting to admit this. They lost the first round to Apple.

Now it seems Apple and Sony might be teaming up again. To what end who knows but it will be interesting to watch.

Apple vs Dell
Dell is scared. Trust me. Smart companies with their heads on straight don't lash out at the competition. Smart companies say their product is nice but ours is better. Dell can't give away it's mp3 player. Why? I think Chris says it best, ugly, ugly, ugly.

The next battle is for the living room and Dell is trying to come out in front this time. But unless they take some good advice they will lose to Apple and Sony.

Dell is bound to corporate and small business sales. The digital lifestyle matters little to these companies and probably explains why Dell's media center is buried in their website. Plus Dell is stuck to Microsoft who seems to be focusing solely on passive TV style entertainment while Apple has been building great tools to make content.


Will the mini and some yet unknown product and service from the Apple Sony partnership bring the full promise of the digital lifestyle and win the war? I'm betting they will. Any takers?