@ omgwtfbbq

The rootkit issue indeed was a huge blooper for Sony costing them dearly to rectify the issue. It was of course a copy protecting measure some not too clever people at a Sony subunit thought of, the software had security holes so Sony had to recall all affected CDs and pay 150 USD million in damages. I think they have learned a lesson from that one. But doesn't affect me on how I look at their products and especially the PS3. I never cared much about the PSX and PS2, but I do like Ape Escape 2, God of War and Jak3 I recently bought for my PS3.

BTW I own a cool ultra thin Samsung U600 phone! With regard to my personal phone preferences I am a Samsung "fanboy" , but this doesn't nullify the findings of the mentioned consumer satisfaction study.

I love microsoft, they are way better than nintendo or sony, they make online gaming great, started with internal hard drives, some people hates that their consoles do something extra than games, I think they say that because they have a wii, but even the wii lets you surf the web, so does that make you hate the wii.
And when I say I love microsoft is because we need more and more people generating new ideas for us gamers, nintendo won a couple of generations and destroyed the market, sony the same, its good to have counter parts so the other guy is not able to do what ever they want... as microsoft does with OSs.

And by the way, every time I read about people saying that it would be great to have apple doing a console because microsoft this or microsoft that, I just think that they are the worst, I you buy an Ipod (which by the way is not the bes MP3 player), you cannot download music from any other place but itunes.

They are all the same, I hate nintendo and sony because they already harmed the console market once, microsoft is trying (hahahahaha) but not there yet, my point of view is that as gamers we should be happy to have as many options as we can, and let me tell a 360 is a great option specially when I look at the wii and their mediocre games (yes I have one) and the PS3 with almost no games at all (no, I don't have one but I will).

 Ah, but from your link

So both of them are not an exact science.

MikeB said: @ omgwtfbbq The rootkit issue indeed was a huge blooper for Sony costing them dearly to rectify the issue. It was of course a copy protecting measure some not too clever people at a Sony subunit thought of, the software had security holes so Sony had to recall all affected CDs and pay 150 USD million in damages. I think they have learned a lesson from that one. But doesn't affect me on how I look at their products and especially the PS3. I never cared much about the PSX and PS2, but I do like Ape Escape 2, God of War and Jak3 I recently bought for my PS3. BTW I own a cool ultra thin Samsung U600 phone! With regard to my personal phone preferences regarding I am a Samsung "fanboy" , but this doesn't nullify the findings of the mentioned consumer satisfaction study.

It should not have taken a security exploit to realise that the Rootkit was a bat idea! Whether there was a security exploit or not is completely besides the point, Sony betrayed the trust of their customers by secretly and illegally installing malicious software on their PC's, and then hid the fact by installing a rootkit on their machines. And the only thing that got them to recall and pay was because of the security problems! Nothing to do with their illegal installation of unsolicited programs or the complete violation of the privacy of their customers. They then proceeded (with their usual arrogance) to basically say "we don't care. people are ignorant and we can keep pissing all overP them, because they don't really know what we did."

This is not a "blooper" as you so kindly put it, but an absolute disaster and something that should completely shake anyone's trust in the company. This idea should not have left a single person's head let alone managed to make it all the way to actually being placed on actual CD's that were actually sold in actual stores! How the hell can anyone purchase a product from this company? What's to stop them doing it again? They've already shown they don't care about your privacy at all, so why are you giving them your credit card details when you shop at the PSN store? Who knows what stories your PS3 can tell Sony about you? How can you trust that they're not using this information contrary to your wishes? How can you sit there and give money to this company, basically validating their viewpoint that people will sit there and consent to being pissed all over?

As for Samsung, I actually have a Samsung laptop, as well as a Samsung plasma HDTV. They are fantasic products, and I am very impressed with them. I would probably call myself a Samsung "fanboy" myself. Their products are high quality and in general cheaper than Sony's.

@MikeB

I tried to edit, but replied instead...oops:

 Ah, but from your link

So both of them are not an exact science. Also, it's all about powerful brands, how else do you measure the power of a brand? The problem I have with the AlixPartners' version is that it is based on opinions of 5000 people in the US. Where was this survey taken, in a Sony store?

As omgwtfbbq stated, anyone who paid close attention to the rootkit situation was absolutely infuriated by Sony's actions.

It was bad enough that they illegally installed software on peoples' computers. It was even worse that the software was exploitable and opened your computer to attack.

But the WORST part was Sony's attitude after they were found out. Read some of their comments and the shit they said about their rootkit and I have a hard time believing that you would ever "like" Sony after that point. They basically took a "oh well, stop stealing our stuff and we won't f*** up your computer" approach to the rootkit. I was so pissed that I came awfully close to boycotting them for a long time (I've never boycotted a company in my life, even MS during their anti-trust heyday).