AOL Time Warner and Sony plan to develop a broadband entertainment
platform that will allow consumers to access the same, or similar,
content from their home computers, TVs, mobile phones or game consoles.
Announced at the giant COMDEX fair in Las Vegas on Monday, the project
was described as a delivery system that could provide a family’s entire
entertainment and information needs.
AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case
described it as “everything connected to everything, a seamless
integration into people’s lives.”
In a statement, Sony president
Kunitake Ando said that the company is “committed to connect all Sony
products through high-speed Internet.” He added that the future
broadband system will be “like air,” ubiquitous in society. “This is an
environment where PCs and consumer electronics are linked seamlessly to
each other through a network. Nothing will prevent Sony from achieving
that concept.”
The AOL Time Warner announcement followed by days one by
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in which he unveiled several new products
that could be hooked up to the Internet.
Asked by the Washington Post
about the AOL Time Warner-Sony alliance, a Microsoft spokesman said
Monday, “To some degree, I think this is about playing catch-up.”
