....To its televisions and DVD players it has recently added a product called CoCoon, an enhanced TiVo-like device that can store televised video or download it from the internet, and that is already selling in Japan. To its Vaio desktop computers and notebooks it has added a new RoomLink device, which can send digital music, photos or home videos wirelessly from a personal computer to other components elsewhere in the house.

Sony's networking strategy assumes that these audio-visual and computer devices, besides talking to one another, will also share content with a wide range of smaller gadgets, from its cameras and music players to its mobile phones and hand-held computers. (Whether people will also want to link these to the likes of Aibo, Sony's puppy-like line of personal robots, is another matter.)

Like other consumer-electronics firms, Sony is already blurring the lines between these gadgets by blending their features. Its newest Clie hand-held computer plays digital music and takes pictures. The 3G phone launched in February by SonyEricsson, its joint venture with the Swedish phone manufacturer, has two built-in cameras, two display units and a video facility. One of Sony's other new devices, the Airboard, is a wireless panel that you manipulate with a stylus. It can be used either to watch television or to send e-mail and surf the internet.

....Now, however, Sony risks learning the wrong lessons from its history. If its desire to protect itself against piracy messes up its other plans, firms such as Apple will continue to design the devices that Sony ought to be making. It can reduce the danger of that by streamlining its media businesses, so that runaway prices for talent do not push up the costs of paid content too high. Sir Howard Stringer, Sony America's boss, is trying to do this in the music business. Last month, he brought in Andrew Lack, a television executive with few ties to the music industry, to make better business sense out of the unit.

Sony's film business, by contrast, is coming out of a bumper year, thanks to hits such as "Spiderman" and the sequel to "Men in Black", backed up by successful DVD sales during the Christmas season. But the music industry should serve as a reminder that success in any content business can be fleeting, especially for a company without a sound business model and sufficiently close attention to costs. With piracy threatening its media businesses, and low-cost copycats snapping at its consumer-electronics devices, Sony is between a rock and a hard place. To steer successfully between them it must focus first on providing consumers with convenience and stylish design. Otherwise, Mr Idei will soon be going quiet again. Maybe for the last time. [The Economist] "Convenience and stylish design" - that about sums it up.