Their excellence in hardware is not matched in software and usability, areas in which North American firms excel (think of gadgets like Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry).

ECONOMIST: Why Japan lost the mobile-phone wars

The general design, usability and stability of the Zune desktop software has indeed come a long way, and we'd have no reservations about using it for all day music browsing and listening.

ENGADGET: Zune 3.0 hands-on Hands-on

Through Sony's knowhow for combining hardware and software, "Sony Tablet" realizes optimal usability and performance.

ENGADGET: Sony S1 and S2 dual-screen Honeycomb tablets get official (video)