The idea of computer-as-integration-point is really a Western one. In Japan you have your smartphone, your console, your camera, etc, and they all overlap more than Western counterparts on what would otherwise be done by a PC.
That's why Sony make great hardware but lousy PC software. Their core market in Japan doesn't need to plug their phones into their PCs to manage their music, they do it all on the device...
In Japan you have your smartphone, your console, your camera, etc, and they all overlap more than Western counterparts on what would otherwise be done by a PC.
So, for reasons of user-habit, there's no single point of integration in Japan? I'd like to be able to use my smartphone to tell my TV-attached device to record show X or download its bittorrent, and have it all just work.
Just that the assumptions are different. Actually, the West is becoming more and more like Japan in this regard. In the past people started with a computer and built out from there. Now I know people with a smartphone and a games console and a Sky+ box and no actual "computer".
That's why Sony make great hardware but lousy PC software. Their core market in Japan doesn't need to plug their phones into their PCs to manage their music, they do it all on the device...