Editorial: Don't read Sony its last rites just yet

Do you remember the near-death of Apple? In the mid-90s, the brand and its fortunes were at an all-time low. The company's rate of innovation had slowed and Microsoft Windows was catching up. Even the innovations that it did launch, the Newton personal digital assistant and an inexpensive computer range using the the PowerPC chip, failed to appeal either to new buyers or Apple's die-hard customer base. In the final quarter of 1995, it managed to lose £69m. Now is it coming back to you? Fast-forward to 2005 and reports of Sony's death are being equally over-exaggerated. The only thing quicker than an observer's willingness to condemn a business to the scrapheap, is their ability to forget the previous occasion on which they proclaimed a death knell, only for it to turn out to be just a temporary difficulty.