Color me totally NOT shocked. If you look back you have to admit Sony has a long track record of being on the cusp of neat-o tech and then totally screwing the pooch; starting with Beta Max back in the '70's. Sony just doesn't seem to want to play well with others and the proprietary (sometimes draconian) nature of their products it seems to me, has been at the root of their downfall. And speaking of Sony and roots (HA!) I don't think that little Sony/BMG CD rootkit fiasco helped them, either. That sort of thing, I think, is looooong remembered and not easily forgotten. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...
Let's see... Pretty sure things started with Beta Max video but other colossal failures would include (in no particular order): Mini Disk, DAT (digital audio tape), ATRACK (an audio compression technology), Memory stick and something called Universal Media or something like that. It was some kind of optical disc technology like DVD, but I forget the details. I'm not surprised to hear they're on their way out; I haven't owned a Sony product since my Walkman gave up the ghost. Too many other companies doing it BFMP (Bigger, Faster, More Powerful). Or, in this case, perhaps it's Smaller, Faster, More Powerful...
Sayonara , Sony! In reality, I hardly knew ye.
....