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Sony has spent the last three years restructuring the company and today releases its big plans for growth. Apparently, the next big thing is electronics products that connect to each other and the Internet and stuff. You know, downloading movies onto a game console or syncing your music with a music player. Wow, I can’t wait for all that kind of technology to come out.

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Paul’s Soapbox is a regular feature of TechConsumer where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects are all over the place: DRM, “3G” Wireless, and Playstation Home.

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Sony CEO Ryoji Chubachi knows something we don’t. At a press conference a few days ago, he pointed out Sony’s plan to increase Blu-ray market share to 50% by the end of the year. How is this possible you might ask? Well, apparently new Blu-ray devices to be offered by Sony will include a model integrated into an HD LCD TV with Blu-ray recording functionality.

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When Sony announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue would be available for $40 in April, I couldn’t help but have a knee-jerk reaction. How could Sony get away with charging $40 for GT5 Reduced Lite Junior Prologue when the full version would sell for only $20 more? Here’s how, the word is out today that the full blown version of Gran Turismo won’t be out for another year! Is this a new business model for delayed games or just Sony trying to satiate the rabid Gran Turismo fans?

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Sony and crapware have a special relationship, so much so that it takes over two minutes for its laptops to boot into Windows (compare that with 30 seconds for a MacBook). The company has even issued press statements explaining its reasoning: “The programs are carefully selected and provide benefits to many consumers, up to 30% of whom act on the offers.”

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Since Blu-ray became the next generation movie disc format of choice, the consumer supposedly has been better off. But Tom’s Hardware claims that prices of Blu-ray players are higher than ever and that now, in fact, is the worst time to buy.

Interesting. I’ve been tracking Blu-ray vs. HD DVD player pricing for the past year via Amazon and hadn’t noticed any recent increases. As of today, the Blu-ray players on Amazon are priced in the same range they’ve always been: the mid to high $300’s. Right now the cheapest Blu-ray player on Amazon is this Samsung for $357. I’ve seen it $20 cheaper, but I’ve also seen it more expensive.

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For anyone keeping score since Blu-ray won the next generation movie battle, HD DVD players are now $99. And that’s with 7 movies included. Considering these players also work well as upconvert DVD players (DVD players that convert and play regular DVDs at a slightly higher picture quality), in some ways, it’s actually the best deal on the market if you’re looking for a good DVD player.

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Toshiba today announced that, “it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.” March 2008 will be the month when the plug is pulled. Just in the last month, we’ve seen Warner Brothers become the latest Hollywood studio to go for Blu-ray while both Blockbuster and Netflix announced plans to phase out HD DVD.

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Paul’s Soapbox is going to be a new regular feature of TechConsumer where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects? Two of my favorite companies to hate: Apple and Sony.

What the hell is up with Apple and their fetish for making products that don’t have user-replaceable batteries? It was bad enough with the iPod, (even if it isn’t quite the only MP3 player in that category) but then they added the iPhone to the list, and now the MacBook Air (my vote for the worst product name since Microsoft Bob). I really can’t understand how it is acceptable to have to send in your cell phone or laptop every year or two (according to Apple) just to have a battery replaced. Did I mention that they’ll rent an iPhone to you while yours is in the shop?

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Last year around this same time I wrote on the then current companies killing DRM (Digital Rights Management, music with restrictions). Coincidentally, this year has the month of January giving us even more news on the battle-for-unrestricted-music front.

Here’s the latest news about music within the context of Amazon, Napster, Sony, and Yahoo:

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