Sony vs. Apple

I just read this article about Sony vs. Apple.

In a nutshell, it says the Apple Store does its job much better than the Sony Style store. I blogged about this a year or so ago, and I'd agree. Sony Style gets so many things wrong that it's hard to believe they can't see it.

First, Sony has too large a product line, and they have boring names. Apple has names like Ipod, Macbook, and Macbook Pro. Sony has names like DSC-W50. Heck, I had to use Google to look up the name. I can't even recall it. And I own the frickin' camera!

Sony's staff tries to be hip, wearing those earpieces, staffed with youth-hip, but they aren't particularly friendly. And this is just one store. I brought in coffee once (I think), and they seemed upset at this. Most bookstores now figure that if there is an accident with food and drink, they'll eat the costs, because the irritation factor is far greater than the actual number of messes that occur.

Apple runs tutorials on using the Macs. They have a Genius Bar. I recently had a positive experience with a guy helping me install XCode, a code base for the Apple so large that I couldn't conveniently download it anywhere. Since Sony doesn't control its own software (using Windows, of course), it would not be helpful in this regard.

This is one of those cases where Sony simply doesn't get it, and why, more than likely, their stores will never be as popular as Apple's.