Sony kills the Aibo project

Electronics industry giants Sony has announced that they are no longer pursuing in further developing robots. This means that the company would no longer be producing their Aibo robot, which has been very popular in the Japanese market. This decision is part of the company’s cost cutting and reorganization effort.

Sony is killing not only the Aibo project but also the more expensive robotic product Qrio. The company never sold Qrio in the market but did manage to sell as many as 150,000 units of Aibo. However, the robotics division of the company made little profits and this has resulted in company closing this unit of theirs.

Sony spokeswoman Kirstie Pfeifer said in a statement announcing the demise of lovable robotic pet Aibo: “Our core businesses are electronics, games and entertainment, but the focus is going to be on profitability and strategic growth. In light of that, we’ve decided to cancel the Aibo line.”

The latest version of Aibo was pretty advanced and came with the ability to speak as many as 1,000 words. In addition, it also reacted to owner’s commands and motions. In addition, it also kept blogs with pictures taken by the camera installed on its body if so desired by its owner.