Man Bites Robotic Dog

Not really man bites robotic, just a report on Sony's Aibo project.

Leah Hoffmann, 01.27.06, 5:00 PM ET Forbes Online

NEW YORK - It sang. It danced. It fetched. It never made a mess, though once--we swear--it lifted its leg as though marking its territory near a Majesty Palm in our office.

Yet Sony's cute robotic dog, Aibo will soon be put to sleep. In its third-quarter financial report, released yesterday, the company announced that research and development for Aibo has been halted, and that production of the $2,000 robot would stop the end of March.

Given its high price, Aibo was never a serious mass-market contender. Still, Sony sold more than 150,000 of the dogs since their 1999 debut, and many Japanese business executives were said to have an Aibo wandering around their offices. Over time, Aibo grew more technologically sophisticated--the latest model could play MP3s, connect to your wireless network and take pictures with a camera in its mouth.