There’s an interesting article on Bloomberg’s site that leads with news about a possibly forthcoming wristband from Sony that uses an e-paper to turn the entire device’s surface into a display.
The article doesn’t go into much depth about the device, but turns out instead to be a fascinating analysis of how Sony is trying to throw off its bureaucracy and become a company that takes product risks and is willing to fail fast with them. Keep in mind that Sony has been reinventing itself — with varying degrees of success — for decades. An internal incubator program is a good idea, if the fruits of it can actually get built and distributed in a meaningful way.
Are smartwatches a place to start? The obvious danger is that by the time Sony gets there, the state of the art will have moved; the company that invented mobile entertainment (transistor radios, Walkmen) has long had trouble producing great products at good prices, and its distribution channels is not as mighty as it used to be.
It’s a good piece that winds up somewhere different, and better, than where you’d expect.
