Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) and Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) will be partnering together to roll out a new line of retail audio products. The new name -- strangely called Altus -- will be centered around home theater and wireless speakers and should start appearing in Best Buy locations next month. But will any customers care?
Sony continues to see huge losses every quarter. Even with the release of the slimmer and less-pricey PlayStation 3 just announced yesterday, it won't recover with a brand that has lost big to its Korean rivals in the last five years. Sony's arrogance and higher prices have hurt is badly, which makes it odd that it chose a low-impact category like home theater speaker systems to try and boast its brand.
The one shining light in the Altus line will be two new iPod docking systems. But a docking station, two wireless high-end speakers, and AM/FM tuner and a remote control are definitely not going to fly off shelves at $700 suggested retail. What is Sony thinking?
Even with a slimmed-down version priced at $400, these items will be mostly niche sales to Sony aficionados more than anything. It is going to take a lot more than that to dig Sony out of the hole it continually puts itself in. There's very little compelling competitive advantage in anything Sony makes right now outside of the PlayStation ecosystem.
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