Sony Dash given ability to stream TVs and movies from Netflix, new lease on life
We were filled with excitement the moment Sony took the wraps off of its Dash personal internet viewer back at CES, but after learning that this was less of a tablet and more a sophisticated widget machine for in-home use …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony introduced the Dash at CES 2010 as a bedside 'personal internet viewer' — closer to a widget screen than the tablet some had hoped for — which left its appeal an open question. The fix announced on 2010-02-16 is content rather than hardware: the device gains Netflix streaming of TV shows and movies.
That addition slots Sony into a deliberate Netflix strategy. In September 2009 Reed Hastings unveiled the company's black-box streaming device and framed it as a disruptive threat to cable itself ("Sorry Cable, You're History"), and by January 2010 Netflix had signed five more consumer electronics manufacturers to embed the service. The Dash is one more license in that march.
First-order effects
- Dash owners get TV and movie streaming on a device whose initial framing as a 'sophisticated widget machine' had drawn skepticism, directly addressing its thin use case.
- Sony gets a marquee content brand on hardware it launched without one, repositioning the Dash from novelty clock to living-room/bedside video terminal.
Second-order effects
- Every competing CE maker now faces the same calculus Sony did: a connected device without Netflix certification looks incomplete, so licensing talks with Netflix shift from optional to defensive.
- For pay-TV providers, each licensed device — Hastings' stated ambition being cable obsolescence — is another pipe carrying subscription video around the cable bundle.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, streaming-app certification becomes a baseline spec for consumer electronics, with device makers competing on screens and industrial design while the service layer concentrates with a few licensors like Netflix.
The trend: Netflix is converting its catalog into a platform license, making 'Netflix-ready' a de facto requirement that consumer electronics manufacturers race to meet.