Sony products to talk to one another

Sony products, like the Clie handheld, are getting increasingly equipped to share data

In this story: The bedrock of Sony strategy Meet the Airboard RELATED STORIES, SITES

By CNN's Kristie Lu Stout

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Sony has always had a knack for cranking out gee-whiz products. Now the company wants its products to start "talking."

Rushing towards the convergence of its audio, visual and computer products, Sony will put an Internet address into all of its electronic devices to enable them to communicate with each another.

The central hub of Sony's universe of networked devices is called the Airboard, a home networking technology that is already available in Japan.

The bedrock of Sony strategy

"It's the bedrock of Sony's electronic manufacturing strategy to think more in terms of networking products and not standalone products," Sony spokesperson Marren Wrigley told CNN.

Sony is adopting the Internet's addressing scheme to allow its audio-visual products to talk and exchange data with one another.

"At the moment, only some products have that," says Wrigley.

"But in the future, as broadband infrastructure becomes available, people will want their TVs to be connected to the Internet and become a more integral product."

The Sony Walkman is already networked, and thus able to download music from the Internet.

The Sony Clie personal digital assistant is also wired to play video clips and display still images. For consumers who don't wish to double up on devices, music can also be downloaded and enjoyed on the handheld device.

Meet the Airboard

A new product called the Airboard is billed as the central control point for the company's growing array of networked products.

Currently available only in Japan, the Airboard is a hybrid appliance that can play data stored on Sony memory sticks, send email, access Web pages, show DVDs, and screen television programs.

Ed Greboz, deputy president of Sony Electronics, told journalists earlier this week that the product will hit other markets in the near future.

Sony's Wrigley says the Airboard will debut in the U.S. "some time in the next financial year."

The electronics giant is out to create, in its words, "networked solutions," and not just cameras and video recorders. It's a strategy the company wants to take not only to the consumer sector, but to its professional customers as well

"In the past, Sony sold standalone broadcasting equipment like cameras for TV stations and sound decks," says Wrigley.

"But with the digitizing of moving images, it is possible to transmit images over the Internet and broadcasters are thinking about how they can take these images and move them online."

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