Sony comes out swinging

LAS VEGAS — Speculation is rampant about anti-Microsoft moves that Google co-founder Larry Page will announce today in his first-ever speech at the Consumer Electronics Show.

But in the world of consumer electronics, Microsoft is facing a far bigger competitor: Sony.

On Thursday, Sony's aggressive new chief executive announced several moves to reclaim its home-entertainment turf from Microsoft and other encroaching tech companies.

In a keynote speech on the first full day of the show, Sir Howard Stringer said Sony is uniquely positioned to develop the next generation of entertainment products and confront challenges such as music copyrights because of its experience producing both hardware and content through its music and movie companies.

"Content and technology are strange bedfellows, but we are joined together," he said. "Sometimes we misunderstand each other, but isn't that the definition of marriage?"

Stringer, a former TV executive who became Sony's chief in June, said he has reorganized and streamlined the company to overcome a jumbled structure that has held it back in recent years.

Echoing Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' comments the night before, Stringer said software is the key to improving the experience of digital media. Sony is increasing its focus on software and last month hired former Apple Computer executive Tim Schaaff as senior vice president of software development.

Stringer said the company has not made any decision to use less Microsoft software in its products, such as the Windows-based entertainment PC both Sony and Microsoft are showing in Las Vegas this week.

Stringer did acknowledge the two companies are on opposite sides of an industry dispute over which format should be used for storage discs that will replace the DVD format in a few years. Sony backs a standard called Blu-ray that it began developing in 1993; Microsoft backs an alternative called HD-DVD.

"There's no question that a format war is not a good idea, but I don't see what we can do about it other than press on" to convince people Blu-ray is better, Stringer said.

The fight is partly an extension of the competition between video-game consoles, Stringer said. Sony's new console supports Blu-ray; Microsoft on Wednesday announced an HD-DVD drive is being developed for its Xbox 360.

Gates played up HD-DVD in his keynote Wednesday, but Stringer made it personal Thursday. He brought Microsoft's biggest customer, computer vendor Michael Dell, on stage to praise Blu-ray as the superior format.

The Dell Computer chairman said customers want a standard format that will be around for some time, and that Blu-ray's higher capacity — 50 gigabytes per disc vs. HD-DVD's 30 gigabytes — makes more sense for backing up data from increasingly huge PC hard drives.

Surrounded by Sony televisions, Dell took the opportunity to pitch his company's flat-panel displays. Then Stringer joked that if people are looking for an expensive laptop, they should buy one of Sony's Vaio models.

Stringer also announced a Sony electronic book would go on sale in the spring, a product that could realize Gates' long-held dream of a low-cost, high-quality handheld device for reading books and documents.

The Sony book is a thin, paperback-sized device with a flicker-free, black-and-white screen and the capacity to store about 80 books. Sony plans to sell books such as "The Da Vinci Code" through its music-download service. The device is expected to sell for around $300.

Sony's PlayStation 3 game console is also expected in the spring, but there wasn't one on stage. Instead, Stringer and Kaz Hirai, head of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, showed a short video with excerpts from PS3 games.

Poking fun at the hype around the Xbox 360 that went on sale in November, Hirai said the next generation of entertainment "doesn't begin until we launch it."

Hirai also said Sony's current PS2 console and PlayStation Portable game device both outsold the Xbox this holiday season.

Although Microsoft and Sony are going head to head, Sony is more concerned about the threat from Apple's dominance in digital music, said Mark Anderson, a Friday Harbor technology commentator.

"Microsoft is not the one that's going deep into the heart of Sony country," he said.

As for the future of television and video-entertainment systems, the competition is still wide open in the transition to digital formats linked to the Internet.

Sony, Microsoft, Apple or even Cisco Systems could emerge as the dominant home-entertainment company in the future, Anderson said. "I think it's anybody's game."

Google, meanwhile, is expected to announce a bundle of desktop software programs, including its desktop toolbar, RealNetworks media player and Symantec security software. It will be offered to consumers and to computer companies that want to package it with their machines, according to a Wall Street Journal report yesterday.

Earlier in the show, some had speculated that Google would announce a Google-brand PC, similar to the branded PCs that AOL and Disney now produce.

Google technology for searching video content will also be part of Intel's Viiv platform, the semiconductor giant said yesterday. Viiv is Intel's emerging technology aimed at making it easier to manage and use entertainment content on PCs.

The show, which ends Sunday, is expected to attract 125,000 attendees.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com