Sony Buys BeOS in 1998-9

A random thought bubble.

BeOS was up for sale post-Apple passing on them.

Sony was beginning to try and get around Microsoft (witness their grand PS2 will do everything proclamations).

BeOS is just about perfect for the PS2 and can scale up to computers and down to other devices to create Sony's ideal no-Windows and total Sony control of everything plan. BeOS is also quite well made (IIRC) to handle the kind of processor the Emotion Engine was and it scales to multiple CPUs super-well.


So let's say the PS2 team (or their management, or the strategic Sony management) decides they need their own OS. BeOS is the obvious choice for something that Sony could control. They buy them in 1998 or 1999. Then what? (Besides renaming it: SonyOS? MediaOS? PlayOS? Something like that.)

I'm thinking they scale up the PSX project (keep the PS2 motherboard so it can play PS2 games, add another Emotion Engine CPU as BeOS works great with extra CPUs, more RAM, a slot for a new GPU for the future, and a HDD as well as the TV tuner/DVR it was IOTL) and use that as a launch-board for a BeOS computer line-up.

With BeOS they might also be able to scale it down and have a standard OS for all their consumer electronics. This could also mean the Emotion Engine and successors becomes a new CPU (probably adopting PowerPC standards like Cell) platform.

If they still contract the XMB team, BeOS could also have a super-futuristic looking User Interface as a marketing bullet point.

Once they see how well Apple is doing with OS X (say 2003-4, around when the PSX came out IOTL) then they can launch the PSX—let's call it the CyberDeck ;)—and if it's successful, quite possible as it's a PS2 game playing full computer that also controls your TV, they can expand that. Perhaps Emotion Engine + x86 processor so that their computer line-up can play PS2 games as well as dual-boot Windows and have easier porting of programs to BeOS from Windows.

In fact it could also mean Sony can save their Walkman MP3 players (maybe, if Jean Louise-Gassée wrests control of the computing and related division) as well as muster a competitor on the level of the Palm Pre/WebOS to the iPhone.


Fun, interesting, remotely plausible? Comments are free :).
 

Thande

Donor
Interesting idea...can you clarify what you mean by PSX here? I've heard it used to mean about 17 different concept consoles from 1993 onwards.
 
I'm not really seeing the synergies that would make BeOS worthwhile for Sony to acquire. At the time, console programmers were used to coding on bare metal and deeply distrusted anything that might get in the way of their squeezing every last drop of performanace out of the hardware. I think the XBox was the first major console to have anything like a desktop OS, and that wasn't until a year and a half after the PS2 came out (Sega Dreamcast did have a stripped-down version of WinCE, but it was a dismal flop from a business perspective, being outcompeted by the mostly bare-metal PS2).

BeOS was way ahead of its time as a desktop OS, but mostly in features that would be completely bypassed by a console game developers. It was great for getting graphics and multimedia apps to run together simulataneously in a desktop environment, but that's not a problem on a console where you have only one app running at a time.
 
Interesting idea...can you clarify what you mean by PSX here? I've heard it used to mean about 17 different concept consoles from 1993 onwards.

Oh yeah, sorry. The PS2 DVR model sold only in Japan. It seems like the logical first step in working towards BeOS computers.

I'm not really seeing the synergies that would make BeOS worthwhile for Sony to acquire. At the time, console programmers were used to coding on bare metal and deeply distrusted anything that might get in the way of their squeezing every last drop of performanace out of the hardware. I think the XBox was the first major console to have anything like a desktop OS, and that wasn't until a year and a half after the PS2 came out (Sega Dreamcast did have a stripped-down version of WinCE, but it was a dismal flop from a business perspective, being outcompeted by the mostly bare-metal PS2).

BeOS was way ahead of its time as a desktop OS, but mostly in features that would be completely bypassed by a console game developers. It was great for getting graphics and multimedia apps to run together simulataneously in a desktop environment, but that's not a problem on a console where you have only one app running at a time.

You misunderstand me, I think. BeOS on the PS2 would be there for everything but games. Games would function exactly as they did IOTL and in all liklihood BeOS would shut itself down after games booted up (it's probably too early for onscreen OS controls).

At the time Sony was seriously pushing the PS2 as your living room multimedia computer that does so many things you don't need a PC. That's the key reasons Microsoft decided to make the Xbox. Not because they expected to make money, but because Sony's strategy had the potential to threaten Windows and nothing can be allowed to do that.

BeOS makes that potential (which stayed potential, OTL) much more real. It gives Sony their own operating system roughly as good or better than OS X (although OS X in 2000 is probably a year or two ahead in development…*but Sony in 2000 has far more money than Apple in 2000).

Once Sony has made BeOS installed on a hundred million computers (i.e. the PS2) than even if only 10% use their PS2's BeOS they have a solid install base to support launching BeOS into the regular desktop/laptop space.
 
Hmmm they would still suffer from claiming the emotion engine is the greatest chip in history, when it wasn't. Hell I can recall them making all sorts of ridiculous claims! They did it again with the cell and it's only non PS3 use just appeared controlling HD upscalling in TVs...

When Sony go off insisting in it's own standards it more often than not fails, and trying to Market a non windows pc platform sounds like it too. Also the PS2 was difficult enough to code for without this, you could lose third party support potentially.

As for Sonys MP3 players they are doomed for several reasons:

1. Sony as a company overall fought against digital music, as it's a content producer.

2. For years it insisted on it's ATRAC format and own rubbish software and limited capacity hard drives / mini discs.

3. By the time they accepted MP3 format and large capacity players, Apple had scorched them and the Walkman brand meant little to a new iPod loving generation.

If you want to save that aspect of Sony you'd need a lot of butterflys, cheifly getting rid of Sony Music I'd say.
 
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Hmmm they would still suffer from claiming the emotion engine is the greatest chip in history, when it wasn't. Hell I can recall them making all sorts of ridiculous claims!

The Emotion Engine, if you've read about it, is actually a deeply interesting chip that was in fact (for its intended purpose) better than other CPUs. The two key problems were that no one knew how it worked and that how it worked was radically different from your usual PPC/x86 CPU.

Check out Ars here and here for a lot of really interesting reading.

When Sony go off insisting in it's own standards it more often than not fails, and trying to Market a non windows pc platform sounds like it too. Also the PS2 was difficult enough to code for without this, you could lose third party support potentially.

[… stuff everybody knows]

Setting aside Sony's long-term problem with being a consumer electronics company that happens to own content providers (which, I agree, is a longer term project but having a guy like Gassée plus BeOS can probably be used as a smartphone OS just like OS X was adapted so Sony might fail at fighting the iPod but they might learn to lesson and have earlier smartphones perhaps using the Walkman brand as they sort of did OTL) the PS2 won't be any harder to program for. It was already a bitch, and having BeOS on it won't things one way or the other.

As for a non-Windows platform Microsoft made the Xbox simply to prevent the PS2 from adopting any computer like features. Having BeOS on it means Microsoft will come in loaded for bear—this means Sony's only real option is to try and use the PS2 as a trojan horse to make BeOS popular and follow it up with computers.

By 2004 Sony can basically copy Apple's playbook in how to run a non-Windows OS with high-end hardware. Their key competitive advantage would be that (as long as they keep the PS2 motherboard on-hand, at least for desktops) their computers would play PS2 games neatly side-stepping an issue that hurt Apple up until they switched to x86 chips.


I'm not saying that Sony can pull everything off perfectly or anything, but having BeOS gives them a very good chance of being a larger player in the computer market, of being able to compete in the smartphone space (without re-skinning Windows Mobile or Symbian), and of being able to use the PS2 and perhaps PS3 the way they intended as a replacement for the PC.
 
Hmmm I'm not convinced, what reasons are there for Sony to want to square up to Microsoft? Yes Apple make a nice living out of doing it all themselves but it's always been that way.

Your talking about Sony suddenly removing Windows from it's Vaio range, now while they have brand loyalty suddenly their customer base is going to find their existing software doesn't work. Whether BeOS is better than Windows is irrelevant, I think most would agree OSX is much better, but there's still a lot more Windows machines out there.

Personally I think the market has moved away from trying to create an all in one box under your tv, people simply don't like using PC like functions on a TV. Connectivity between devices is the way forward, Sony favouring it's own unique chip set and OS will probably be a block, at least in programming terms, compared to Microsoft and the ease with which the 360 can work with Windows.

Or the whole thing ends up accelerating to Apples situation now, adopting standard chips to allow compatability with Windows.


It's a nice concept, but I think ultimately it would lead to Sony selling less Vaios for no likely increase in PS2s, it's worth noting the PS2 chipset was originally touted as finding it's way into TVs and computers. But Sony being Sony divisional infighting killed that.

Again for something like this to have a chance you need major restructuring. This is a company that had one of it's own divisions suing a Sony owned radio station before they realised they were suing themselves!
 
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