20060202
    Sony, sadly, has decided to put an end to its production of Aibo, its robotic doglike pet first introduced in the late 1990s. Sony’s reasons for making such a decision are multitudinous and likely make lots of business sense; however for a robot aficionado like me, the decision is a sad one.
    Many Aibo users claim that the robot pet was just reaching the prime of its technology, with the last technological glitches overcome and a growing community of ‘Aibo hackers’ who add functionality to the robot. Given a few more years, Aibo could have become the first real household robot in wide production.
    Instead, Sony’s withdrawal leaves a vacuum to be filled by some other yet to be discovered company. Until then, we wish Aibo ‘sayonara’.
DLH
