I wish the reputation damage was real but dispite past transgressions by Sony I see no decrease in fawning over whatever new cool product or movie they release. Even tech sites that should know better complain about Sony in one post while promoting their products in another.
For what it's worth, I'm one customer they've driven away.
Their handling of the hacking attack was the final straw for me: it finally convinced me that continuing to buy things through PSN would be unwise. I bought an Apple TV as a replacement for online movie rentals and although I still buy PS3 games it's in-store now rather than online. So far it's working out great!
I haven't knowingly bought a piece of Sony hardware or audio since their root-kit fiasco. In fairness, based on their products, they haven't really made this difficult to commit to.
Agreed, seems like you're not missing much. Sony gear I bought in the 80s and early 90s still works. Sony gear I bought in the last decade has already failed, usually in under 5 years. I quit buying it, as it doesn't seem like it's made by the same company.
I made the same commitment at the same time (though I've probably paid to see Sony movies, alas), but I was still looking enviously at their laptops last time I was buying one.
Still, it gives me a fair amount of satisfaction to choose something else over Sony when the products are next to each other on a shelf.
Sony just lost about $600 the other day when I bought a TV, rejecting the otherwise perfectly good Sony option. That's neither the first, nor likely the last, purchasing decision they'll be excluded from.
I'm not buying Sony products since they tried to make everyone to use memory stick. Unfortunately, sometimes they create products that are not matched by the competition: they shipped reasonable e-ink reader well ahead of everyone; now Nex 7 looks like a camera that outperforms others in the segment.
