Sony AIBO - RIP

Sony has, in a not so surprising move, pulled the plug on its robot dog Aibo.

The Aibo, for many of us was the first commercial “fun robot”. It had no purpose in life, other than entertain its owners with some silly pet tricks. And guess what, people did love it. It was one of those cool status symbols that everyone with a little bit too much of that dotcom bonus needed and wanted, to prove that they still had an inner child and he needed a robot dog.

The move to shut down the AIBO (150,000 sold since 1999) was prompted by a new found, no nonsense desire by Sony”s new CEO, for this funny thing that shareholders want - more profits. (On a side note, Sony was sort of lucky that the produced a profit this year… apparently due to boosts from the PSP and the new Bravia line - indicating that not all is well with some of the other lines of business).

Guess, this opens the way for companies like WowWee who have been producing new revolutionary robots like the Robosapien line up at a lower cost (and obviously at a better return on investment ratio for their shareholders).

More information about Sony”s AIBO and other product line changes can be found here.