Sony eVilla

Sony Corporation’s evilla was an internet appliance that fit on kitchen counters, and enabled users to surf the internet, send e-mail, and store music. The evilla featured a vertical 15-inch monitor, ran on the beIa operating system, had a memory stick reader instead of a hard drive, and had two USB ports for connecting to zip drives and printers. The product was launched around 2001, but was hastily withdrawn from the market two months later. Although no clear reason was given by the company, a spokesperson attributed the withdrawal of the product to “falling short of our initial expectations with regard to stability and usability”. The operating system also could not cope with the network demands placed on it.