[snogglethorpe]

> My point is Sony's hardware is quite famous for being extremely unreliable

s/hardware/game systems/

Sony had a reputation for quality (and style) prior to (and aside from) the Playstation.

According to a friend of mine that worked for them back-in-the-day, the SCE division was a sort of black sheep within Sony, insular and culturally rather distinct, and even rather hated by mainstream Sony management (especially at SCE's "height" when they became crazy arrogant). However, the Playstation was so insanely popular that Sony had little choice but to tolerate it.

I don't know what things are like now, but I'd think that time, the importance of the PS to Sony, and things like the PS3 fiasco ("they can just get a second job to pay for it!") may have moderated SCE and brought it into the fold somewhat.

[Sony's other divisions weren't perfect, of course, and especially really low-end stuff (e.g. $25 phones) not made in Japan didn't really transcend their price-point. But they've always had a pretty good reputation in general.]