Sony Phones Home

Sony (NYSE:SNE) disappointed me earlier this week with its anti-piracy disaster, and I'm trying hard to get past that as I ponder its latest announcement. The company has baffled me with many of its recent less-than-stellar moves, and I was equally mystified today when the company unveiled plans for a free voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) product. Say what?

I settled down a bit after digging past the headlines to get the real scoop. Telephones would be an odd fit among Sony's host of consumer product lines, but this is actually a videophone service, which makes a bit more sense.

The new service, not-so-catchily dubbed Instant Video Everywhere, will be bundled on Sony's new Vaio BX laptops. The computers come equipped with built-in video cameras, which should make the transition to videophone easy for any interested users.

Sony's plan is another sign of VoIP's increasing importance, most recently underlined by eBay's (NASDAQ:EBAY) acquisition of Skype. It's not exactly groundbreaking, though. Plenty of other companies have computer-based video and voice chat already available or on the drawing board, including Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) America Online, and Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iChat.

Sure, Sony's video chat add-on shows that the company is interested in one of the hottest ideas around. But given Sony's ongoing massive restructuring efforts, and the anti-piracy shenanigans that may have eroded their customers' trust, the company's VoIP efforts might end up overshadowed by larger concerns.

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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.