Sony Corp., which created the transistor radio and the Walkman portable music player, is in trouble. Only once since 2005 has the firm's electronics division showed a profit. The company's share price has dropped by almost 50 percent over the same period, and its products, which were innovative in the 1990s, have been succeeded by a series of failures. Sony is pinning its hopes on its new game console, the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Sony considers the PS3 more than a game box, saying it is actually a computer that is designed to function at the center of a networked home. It can serve films, navigate the Internet, and do almost everything a personal computer can do in addition to providing state-of-the-art game play. The new console utilizes two ambitious but untested technologies. It has a sophisticated microchip that operates at massive speeds. Additionally, Sony has built into its console the new Blu-ray high definition disc player. Since this format is incompatible with Sony's rival, Toshiba, it represents a move to control the market in next-generation video discs. The company's approach is daring, but it does not use Sony's strengths, say critics. Sony has always been best when it manufactures personal hardware, designing innovative gadgetry for consumers. Sony has become focused in recent years on imposing its own standards on devices in spite of the market's rejection of those standards. Supporters of Sony are concerned about the direction the company has taken.