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By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com
Published: December 4, 2006, 7:55 PM EST

Bumbling about like a giant that has stubbed its toe, many have been amused by the antics and reactions of Sony this year. Scandals, troubled launches, production problems, manufacturing woes at every turn... it's been a rough year. While they are certainly no stranger to trying to put a positive spin on things (and who could blame them?), it isn't often that them or any large company apologizes for it. Sony President Ryoji Chubachi today came out to apologize for some of the companies mistakes, most noticeably the slow reaction to the costly battery recall:

"The company should have investigated the cause of the battery problem more quickly. The worries over the batteries spread as a result," said Chubachi to the Mainichi Shimbun.

As it stands, there are still many people with defective units in the mail, waiting for their replacement parts. He later mentioned that the the pressures of meeting a larger capacity battery standard along with development of the PS3 were things that furthered the trouble.

Source: techspot.com

Related article: dailytech.com

Great that Sony apologized, but it reinforces something Sony's famous for.

Our customers will have to wait for us to get to them, while we focus on the customers we might get.

and as far as apologies, Sony has had to make alot of them:

As a person who saw Kinight's Tale, I would kick the critic David Manning in the balls, if he really existed. Seriously, faking movie critics and movie content is hideous. On the other hand buying the ad space before a movie to run your own movie trailers is to me honest advertising, and I wouldn't ding them for that.

Sony hiring the people painting Playstation grafitti over major cities cost taxpayers lots itself, and then even more when it opened up into othe people painting grafitti, including the really bizarre "SAMSUNG pwns!" at my old train station.

and of course the complete "talk to the hand" they gave Immersion Corp. for the forced feedback in their dualshock (at least Microsoft settled with them.)

and finally, they tried to put Lik Sang out of business in Hong Kong courts for importing to the UK goods they legally purchased and shipped on a legal exporters license to a country they were a certified importer in! and when that didn't work, they went to the High Court of London...

oh, and the SPYWARE fiasco... until Microsoft of all companies defended the people from this invasion.

but TO ME, something they really need to apologize for is their new feature of the PSP. Check this, if you have a PSP AND A PS3, you can download classic PS-1 games to play on your mobile system. These games are often better than some of the crap titles out that are dooming the PSP, but YOU have to have a PS3 to do it. There is no earthly reason you shouldn't be able to download these on a regular computer, and play them on your PSP. To be honest, it is consumer extortion. If the PSP can download Tivo!, it surely can download SONY content. In fact, I think if they let you download PS-1 games online, they would see far more people buy a PSP, and the people would buy content from their online store, which YOU CAN only access from a PS3. In turn, many of those people would see sony's genuine show that they STILL WANT BUSINESS.

but it doesn't seem that way. and to bring this back to batteries, check out the battery for their new controller. It is rechargable, and not designed to be replacable AT THE CONSUMER LEVEL, but they show you how with fifteen minutes you can replace the battery (which is exactly what they will do for you when you ship it back to them)

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-ent ... 214144.php

What kind of stupidity is that? if CONSUMERS can change the battery themselves, just make a panel over the top of the battery!!!

the same kind of stupidity that accompanies the PSP battery life of a miserable 3.8 hours average.