The Sony Aibo (“partner” or “friend” in Japanese) was a huge success, but not in financial terms. Sony pulled the plug on the tech-adorable creation early 2006 after they filed their quarter 3 2005 report. Seems like Sony needed to streamline a bit, and the first thing to go was the dog. Typical.

Nevertheless, Sony is bringing back the adorable but un-furry dog (or at least there are rumors that it is so - ) perhaps for the same reason it released the first few versions – to increase visibility and expand market share.

See, the Aibo is strictly not a stand-alone product line. In the marketing sense, it is impractical to rely on an “entertainment appliance” that cost nearly P90k when it was first introduced for sales. The mission, as Sony sees it is for the Aibo to bolster sales in other product lines by having electronic ties to them: for example, your PSP can be used to control the Aibo with the appropriate program, or a sony laptop can be used to receive and record images from the Aibo’s on-board camera. Sony desktops and software is used to program the Aibo, and users may as well use their cybershots to capture the Aibo in action. In other words, the Aibo is comparable to the sauce that holds a salad together – something that makes the whole dish tastier than the sum of its parts.

                                            Magazine article from Stuff - thanks!

Now the rumored next-gen Aibo will be doing the same thing as its predecessor, as well as luring tech-enthusiasts into the Sony fold. Like Sony’s recent introduction of the Rollyo robotic music dock, a product introduction will remind people that Sony is at the cutting edge of technology; not simply producing products for specific purposes, but producing entertainment pieces that entertains at the same time that it pushes back boundaries. I say build it, and watch the people come.