this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Well all that would be great, but we all know none of that will happen. We can (and should) just stop buying Sony items however as they are not doing so great on that front already. This is the issue when brands do stupid shit, no one seems to want to just stop buying.
Ngl we basically can't buy anything anymore
Hey, silver lining there. We are all broke and Sony is priced out of the market.
Waaay ahead of ya there, buddy. I've been deliberately boycotting Sony since at least the rootkit in 2005, and I think the newest Sony product I actually bought was a Walkman cassette player.
Trouble is, Sony somehow still went right on existing as a huge multinational corporation for the last 20 years anyway. It's almost as if boycotts aren't enough and we actually need consumer protection law. 🤔
My line was when I learned their phones had non standard screen sizes for the reason of "fuck you".
That's strange. Any sources on that? I'd be interested to read up.
Whatever the reasoning, if it wasn't for the other things and if displays were the only criteria, I would actually prefer Sony - a tall and narrow display would work nicely IMO (if you aren't watching 16:9 videos all the time - which I am not), and Sony is also one of the very few manufacturers to offer displays without a punch hole and with very mellow corner rounding. I'm with larger hands and even so I think that my current phone - Nothing 3a Pro - 6.77", 20:9-ish aspect ratio - is just too large to be practical and I'd prefer something around 6" at most (and, as mentioned, something as tall, but narrower could work well).
I can't find it now (I looked but search engines seem to have gone to shit) but many years ago I remember an article about Sony's addiction to non standard formats and it included a quote from a Sony person when the Ericsson line first came out. Basically Sony always wants to try and make things a bit different to give them more control, think Betamax vs VHS. They thought they where just better then everyone and (they do this a lot) assumed that their format would "win". The closest to the article I can find was in 2023 https://www.bwuphoto.com/from-betamax-to-cfexpress-why-sonys-visionary-formats-often-miss-the-mark/ but it is like 20 years later and kinda short without much value.
When they went to the silly phone screen size there was some meat on that idea however, they enjoyed a position as a major player. Sony expected phone apps and such would be made in their odd format and when that did not happen, just kept the format for longer then they should of. I remember having a Sony phone and almost anything you did outside of the web or home screen would just have black bars on ether side. I was always bothered by it but did not know why until I read that article (that now seems to be lost). The reason for these odd formats always seems to be nothing but control for Sony and issues for the consumer.
I can think of a few times Sony did this crap, Betamax, Phones, Playstation disks, CD-i, wierd audio compression tech, mini disk, digital cassettes and their own memory card format.
Any others people can think of? I am now on a bit of a orphaned format kick.
There is some truth to that, yes. But given that they're still around means that they're doing okay despite the questionable choices. Speaking from memory, they absolutely dominated the personal audio market (cassette players, then CD, then mp3/digital) - at least before the iPod came around. MiniDisc didn't stick around, but they still had players for every big format of the day. And let's not forget that they co-developed CD-DA.
They've made some strategic acquisitions (i.e. Minolta) and they're in the big three of pro photography. That's speaking just from my bubble as a hobbyist/semi-pro photographer - but now that I look at the Wikipedia page listing their acquisitions, there are literally hundreds of them.
What you're saying about phones specifically might be true, I can't speak from experience. When they had the P line of Symbian phones I still only had a feature phone with a monochrome screen - and by that time (which I remember reading in magazines) Nokia was the big smartphone player with a lot of Symbian phones sticking to the 320x240 format (so if apps were catering to that, there's the problem). I don't remember specifics about Sony Ericsson's flavour of Symbian, but it seemed weird indeed. As of the feature phones from that time, I remember that many of them supported Java and things were mostly the same across brands.
Generally what you're describing is almost as if Sony has wanted to be Apple - with the difference being that Apple has been significantly more successful in setting trends. Not a fan, but can't not admit how big they are.
Ha! They where big, but now they have closed every store in my nation (in 2015) and have gotten out of more ventures then they entered. They like many large corporations are now coasting on past success and just waiting to have a big break (that's never coming).
I'ma have to re-remember a facet of my life where "I'll make do" was a thing. I mean, it still very much so is... but fuck, I could be "making do" even more if I tried just a little. I don't wanna, because comfortability and all that, but I've done more with less in my past. I'm tired, but I guess it is what it is for the time being. Really wish I didn't have to because of greedy evil, but fuck 'em... good luck in your bunker, I'll smile at the sun instead