Sony will use image-reading software from IBM in its DVD recorders and flat-panel TVs to be launched in the next business year, a newspaper has reported. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said that Sony was expected to embed a modified version of IBM's "DB2 Everyplace" personal computer database software into the products, allowing users to search and index image data at faster speeds.
A spokesman at IBM Japan Ltd., the Japanese unit of the world's largest computer company, said that IBM had been supplying Sony with the database software since late 2003 but could not comment on how Sony would use the product.
"It is true that Sony is using this database software and we believe they will consider using it in the development of future products," IBM Japan spokesman Tadashi Okamura said. "But how it will eventually be used is a decision to be made by Sony."
Sony said in a statement that it was considering the option of employing IBM's software, but that it had not made any decisions about specific products.
An endorsement by Sony would be a boon for IBM Japan, which said it is planning to bolster its research and development of software aimed at digital goods by increasing its employees in this field to around 100 from the current "dozens" this year.
IBM Japan did not disclose a sales target.
Sony Executive Deputy President Ken Kutaragi said earlier this month that the consumer electronics giant had grabbed the top market share for DVD recorders with hard disk drives in December at 35 percent, overtaking leader Matsushita.
Sony is also a major producer of flat-panel TVs.
Story source:
news.yahoo.com.
