Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait and see what the quality is before assuming these will damage Sony's reputation? Farming out production to another company is often done because you're unable to build what you want at the quality you desire.
Sony and Toshiba have been burnt severely during the HD wars and in order to get back on track they need to cut costs. Spending a fortune running LCD TV factories when you can just rebadge someone else's (and pretty much guarantee a profit) is obviously extremely desirable to both. They'd lose more in reputation if they cut costs making the things, or if they didn't make anything to begin with (just look at the heat Toshiba's getting about not making a Blu-ray player.)
“While it's not exactly punching it out with the heavyweights in multi-room audio, the Mint Studio does certainly hold its own with many similarly-priced iPod docks out there.”
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Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait and see what the quality is before assuming these will damage Sony's reputation? Farming out production to another company is often done because you're unable to build what you want at the quality you desire.
Sony and Toshiba have been burnt severely during the HD wars and in order to get back on track they need to cut costs. Spending a fortune running LCD TV factories when you can just rebadge someone else's (and pretty much guarantee a profit) is obviously extremely desirable to both. They'd lose more in reputation if they cut costs making the things, or if they didn't make anything to begin with (just look at the heat Toshiba's getting about not making a Blu-ray player.)