Recently, I saw an article in which a top SONY executive exclaimed that 90 percent of SONY’s products would be networked by 2010. I found these comments interesting for two reasons. First, I naturally thought about the fact that UWB would be an ideal means to connect consumer electronics together as it is fast, power efficient, small in size and very cost effective. Further, UWB is meant to be a cable replacement technology and works at ranges of 50 feet or less – more than adequate for consumer electronics.

While the SONY executive did not mention what technology the company has in mind for its plan, I hope it is planning on using UWB to bring us closer to a “life without wires.” Given the brief comments, it is unclear if SONY really has product plans in place with a real technology selected or, if it merely has a goal, which it has had since the days of the Aibo dog - to try and connect their products in order to make the SONY consumer experience superior to a mix and match of SONY, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

The second thing that struck me about the “90 percent  comment” was just how woefully wrong this prediction is likely to be. I am sure that the person quoted believes the comments to be true. However, the fact is that to achieve a 90 percent rate and to do it in any meaningful way, is not possible by 2010.  Unless, that is, they started back in 2006. There is simply too much software and testing to do in order to achieve such an ambitious goal. What may be possible, in a much narrower context, is to have all new SONY A/V systems capable of talking to each other by 2010. A gargantuan task for sure, but it might be possible.

I can see the benefit of a SONY digital camera connecting to a SONY Bravia LCD HDTV and displaying photos. That would be pretty cool. Sending photos from a SONY-Ericsson phone to a SONY HDTV or SONY Vaio PC would also be nice. Streaming video from the SONY camcorder on the living room table to the SONY HDTV sounds pretty exciting as well. How about connecting your SONY MP3-Media player to your SONY A/V system?

Interestingly, UWB,  in the form of wireless USB,  would be an ideal choice for all of  these applications. The beauty for SONY of choosing wireless USB is that nearly all of their products already have USB connections and applications that work over wired USB today. The easiest way to avoid a monstrous software hurdle of introducing a new network technology would be to simply add Wireless USB to every one of their products that has a USB port today. They would achieve significant software reuse and minimize the amount of new software they have to write.

Perhaps, by deductive reasoning, we have decoded SONY’s secret plans. I certainly hope so. I would love for 90 percent of SONY’s products shipped in 2010 to include UWB. It certainly is the best and most convenient technology to achieve their objectives. Better yet, Sony should plan to ship a wide variety of wireless USB enabled products that could easily be connected to all the other wireless USB products on the market.