It's official: Sony f'ed up

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]

Sony ex-chairman warns on future
BBC News. Monday, 9 October 2006, 10:54 GMT 11:54 UK
Japan's consumer electronics industry is dying, Sony's former chief ...Nobuyuki Idei said. ....

...casting doubt on whether it had ever been a good idea for Sony to get involved in Hollywood through its acquisition of Columbia pictures in 1989.
"The mistake was to buy the company," he said.
Last year Sony appointed Welsh-born Sir Howard Stringer, as the company's first non-Japanese chief executive.
Asked whether that was the right decision, Mr Idei said: "I think so."
But he went on to express his hope that the next chief executive would be a younger Japanese manager, someone he described as "a net citizen".
Mr Idei said Sir Howard had retained his Welsh sense of humour.
Japanese executives were studying how to understand his jokes, he said - "but Welsh humour is very difficult to understand."

[Finished Law School]

No matter the root kits, the overpriced PS3, the half assed attempt that was the PSP, the billion laptop batteries that cause fires...

[Charles]

on a related topic..

The end of the road for Sony monitors

In North America and Japan, Sony's best-selling regions in global terms, the company has as of now ceased to market monitors. At the end of the year the Japanese group will also terminate its monitor business in Europe − which at 30 percent is also an important market for the company. A spokesman of the company told heise online that the last devices would be shipped to specialized dealers in December. For how long they would continue to be available thereafter would depend on the sales figures, he added. Before then, however, a number of new models from the G-series would be launched, he stated.

The decision to abandon the monitor business had been made in Japan, the group's European headquarters had itself been surprised by the move, the spokesman said. Sony would however continue to manufacture displays for the professional domain. These include displays for broadcasting, medical-technology and video-surveillance systems. The so-called Public Displays will also remain part of the company's portfolio.

Last year Sony sold some 3.07 million monitors worldwide, making it the 10th largest manufacturer of such devices. The reasons for Sony's withdrawal are on the one hand the slim profit margins that can be achieved with flat-screen monitors. On the other the apparent unattractiveness for the company of the expected growth rates of about 20 percent; figures that as prospects of financial gain seem to provide too little inducement for the company to hold on to its flat-screen business. In 2005 between 100 and 110 million LCDs were sold annually worldwide; by the end of 2006 that figure is expected to rise to about 130 million units.

While Sony thanks to its Triniton technology enjoyed a prominent position in the domain of cathode-ray tube (CRT) devices, the company was unable to match this success when it came to flat-screen displays. Thus Sony LCDs have so far tended to catch the eye through their design rather than their technical subtlety. Ever since management of the company's European IT peripherals business was concentrated in the UK, Sony has focused its efforts on the technical side. As part of these moves the group has drastically cut down the number of its direct customers from 3000 to 200.

[it's a damn sorry business when a 20% growth rate in your market isn't considered attractive enough to pursue]

[Mulboyne]

it's a damn sorry business when a 20% growth rate in your market isn't considered attractive enough to pursue]

If you've set yourself up to lose money on every unit you sell then I can see how a 20% growth rate would be daunting. Quite why they have no pricing power or economies of scale is another matter.

[Kuang_Grade]

If you've set yourself up to lose money on every unit you sell then I can see how a 20% growth rate would be daunting. Quite why they have no pricing power or economies of scale is another matter.

At my one of my previous jobs, when I pointed out various products were just utter dogs and lost money, sales/distribution usually started off with the joke "but we'll make it up in volume" and then proceed to tap-dance about value of of a diversified customer base (i.e., to include sucky customers) along with some mutterings of how these products were a part of the company's current strategic vision.

Like alot of Sony's previous cash cows, I suspect that the low and middle part of the market has become fairly commoditized and the high end isn't big enough market to support Sony's bloated cost structures...which is a shame, because I quite like my SDM-HS75P LCD monitor, and while it has some quite nice features, at the time I bought it, it was about $120 higher than lesser but quite adequate competing models. Sony needs to realize their branding strength will likely only get them a 5-10% pricing premium nowadays, not the 20-30% they had in the past. But I wouldn't be surprised to see that some of Sony's smaller LCD TVs become a bit more PC friendly, like the MFM-HT95.

[Taro Toporific]

Troubled Sony delays TV streamer as shares dip
The Associated Press, October 21, 2006
TOKYO ----In yet another embarrassment, Sony on Friday postponed the rollout of a product promised for next week to do more tests, a day after lowering its earnings forecast because of a massive battery recall and manufacturing delays.
Japan's trade minister said he was worried about Sony Corp.'s technological capabilities, as Sony shares dipped in Tokyo trading...more...

[Taro Toporific]

Sony quarterly profit plunges 94 percent
MSNBC - Oct 25
TOKYO - Sony’s profit plunged 94 percent for the July-September quarter as a global battery recall and red ink in its video-game business hurt the Japanese electronics and entertainment company....

[Greji]

[Catoneinutica]

The other night, a good friend who is a fairly large ariransu with Sony told me, while profusely sobbing in his beer, that Sony was done in dastardly by the global battery recall. He claimed that they had made considerable efforts to determine what the battery problems were in the "isolated" cases where the malfunctions occurred, but were unable to obtain "cooperation", i.e. obtain many of the faulty units to determine the cause(s), or even if the batteries were Sony and not a substitute. Even the notorious publized case in Kansai, the remains of the computer were thrown away. So, essentially, with no way refute or correct what may have only been "a few" justifiablely bad products. The opposition teki-gaishas were putting on huge pressure in publizing these incidents as common place, so they were forced to recall everything and bite the bullet.

I assumed at the time that he was just spouting company line, but it did make for an interesting view point on what might have actually happened. Business can be risky I hear! hehe

Yeah, but what teki-gaisha is responsible for the fact that Sir Howard Stringer doesn't even want to relocate to Japan?! Not exactly a vote of confidence in the company, to my mind.

[Taro Toporific]

[Taro Toporific]

Sony recalls cameras over glitch
--This is the second major recall this year for Sony--
BBC NEWS | Business | 27 Nov 2006
Sony has said it will recall eight models of its Cyber-shot digital cameras after finding a defect in the liquid crystal display screen....more...

[IkemenTommy]

Good god.. them damned Cybershiznits

[Taro Toporific]

Sony PS3 outsold by Nintendo Wii in Japan
(Reuters via Yahoo! News, Jan 10)
Sony Corp. (6758.T) sold 466,716 PlayStation 3 game consoles in Japan by the end of last month, less than half of its shipment target and of sales of Nintendo Co.'s (7974.OS) rival Wii console, video game magazine publisher Enterbrain said on Tuesday...more...

[/URL]

[IkemenTommy]

Sony PS3 outsold by Nintendo Wii in Japan
(Reuters via Yahoo! News, Jan 10)
Sony Corp. (6758.T) sold 466,716 PlayStation 3 game consoles in Japan by the end of last month, less than half of its shipment target and of sales of Nintendo Co.'s (7974.OS) rival Wii console, video game magazine publisher Enterbrain said on Tuesday...more...

[/URL]

Actually, if you go to Akihabara or any electronics store for that matter, you won't find any Wii or Xbox360 because they are all sold out. However, they have a lot of PS3 available. So much for those clowns lining up to get the PS3 on its release date.

[American Oyaji]

Actually, if you go to Akihabara or any electronics store for that matter, you won't find any Wii or Xbox360 because they are all sold out. However, they have a lot of PS3 available. So much for those clowns lining up to get the PS3 on its release date.

I know, right? All those organized game buyers trying to corner the market to make a quick buck or yen and now they have machines and can't sell them.

GOOD FOR THEM. THEY FUCKED THEMSELVES OVER WITH THEIR OWN GREED!~!

[Taro Toporific]

From the avsforum.com report: "Not using Official Sony Cables/Components? Your warranty is voided! "

That avsforum.com report has now generated a nice poop-on-Sony thread on FARK.com[INDENT][SIZE="3"]Sony voids warranty on PS3's if you don't use Sony component cables? They really don't want anyone to buy one of these, huh?[/SIZE][/INDENT]

[GuyJean]

Sony Q3 Profit Down on PS3
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/01/30/sony.results.reut/index.html

Sony posted a 14.9 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday after massive losses at its game unit outpaced robust sales of flat TVs, but raised its annual outlook closer to market expectations.

Group operating profit at Sony, which competes with Samsung Electronics and Sharp in the $63 billion liquid crystal display (LCD) TV market, came to 178.91 billion yen ($1.47 billion) in October-December, down from 210.35 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The profit fall was expected as Sony had said losses at its game unit would balloon to about 200 billion yen for the business year to March due to costs related to its new PlayStation 3 game console and slow sales of PlayStation Portable handheld players.

For the full year, Sony raised its operating profit forecast to 60 billion yen from 50 billion yen, still falling short of a consensus of a 69.2 billion yen profit in a poll of 21 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

The latest forecast compares with a 226.42 billion yen profit last business year.

Shares of Sony gained 7 percent in October-December, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index IELEC, which rose 4 percent.

GJ

[Buraku]

I've also noticed all MGM films have gone to shit ever since Sony bought up Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I know they have also fucked up the games like Matrix/Everquest on-line. Instead the Sony fat cats are pumping millions into India for Bollywood shows like Jassi Koi Nahin

[Taro Toporific]

Sony Copy Protection Flummoxes DVD Players
Wired News
Gadget Lab - Monday, April 16, 2007
Reports are starting to pile up of unhappy encounters with a new copy-protection system that Sony is baking into commercial DVD release and which renders certain discs useless on older DVD players.Drm
Suspect titles include regular (not Blu-ray) releases of "Casino Royale,' "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Holiday," all of which render nothing more than a brief title screen on certain DVD players (including some Sony models).
DRM snoops say it's the return of ARccOS, a somewhat discredited anti-copying system Sony toyed with a year ago...more...

[Taro Toporific]

[Taro Toporific]

[SIZE="6"]Sony Connect finally dead[/SIZE]
Gen Kanai weblog:
..... I'm sure no one noticed in the midst of the big news in Silicon Valley is that Paid Content reports that at long last Sony Connect is dead as a business....and to add insult to injury, Sony's Japanese music service....

[IkemenTommy]

:bounce:
[SIZE="6"]Sony Connect finally dead[/SIZE]
Gen Kanai weblog:
..... I'm sure no one noticed in the midst of the big news in Silicon Valley is that Paid Content reports that at long last Sony Connect is dead as a business....and to add insult to injury, Sony's Japanese music service....

Sorry Taro, but what is Sony Connect?

[Tsuru]

Sorry Taro, but what is Sony Connect?

Seconded.

[Kuang_Grade]

Clearly you guys are not ponying up enough money to the altar of Sony....Connect was Sony's attempt of an online music store...It was based on the foundation of Sony's media management/dictatorship software, Sonicstage, which is easily the worst piece of software I have ever tried to use in my life. I've never had new software direct from the manufacturer that actually had to load two patches as a part of the initial install process...Assuming that you could get it work without crashing or locking up your PC anytime you tried to used it (after version 3.0 it became vaguely workable), it was rather insistent about the need to convert any audio file it moved from one device to another was in Sony's extremely non popular ATRAC format.

But it might be a bit premature to say its dead....the folks are moving to the PlayStation network (PSN) and are not being fired. So I would view this as a sign that Sony is backing away from the general market for selling music online to anyone who has sony music hardware and refocusing their efforts to sell music online in their own walled garden of the PSN, which is Sony's PS3 online connected network of media, gaming, and commerce.

Wikipedia is a bit choppy on it but gives some basic background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Connect

Basically, Sony Connect is just a Harvard Business School case study on failed management and missed opportunities just waiting to be written.

[IkemenTommy]

There are only a few handful of Sony products that are actually making money... camcorders, DSC, mobile phones (techincally Sony-Ericsson though), Playstation, TV, etc. but there are still way too many crap products available that are dragging the company down. They are slowly evaluating which departments to let go and this time it was this Sony Connect. (I still have not heard of it.)

[Taro Toporific]

... Sonicstage, which is easily the worst piece of software I have ever tried to use in my life.
Basically, Sony Connect is just a Harvard Business School case study on failed management and missed opportunities just waiting to be written.

Sonicstage/Sony Connect is not just the "worst piece of software" --It's proof of the need for Corporate Capital Punishment.

[Captain Japan]

Nintendo outstrips Sony in market value
Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co. Ltd. zipped past Sony Corp. in market value on Monday and became one of Japan's top 10 issues for the first time, as it elbows the PlayStation maker out of its decade-long dominance of the game industry.

Nintendo now joins such global household names as Toyota Motor Corp. , Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Canon Inc. on the list of the 10 most valuable Japanese companies. Shares in Nintendo were up 1.5 percent at 46,150 yen by midday, boosting its market value to 6.54 trillion yen ($53 billion), while Sony fell 1.1 percent to 6,480 yen, or 6.50 trillion yen in market capitalization.

Nintendo's Wii game console has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by three to one in Japan and by more than two to one in the United States so far this year, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain and research firm NPD....more...

[Kuang_Grade]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Wii is expanding the market to include more causal gamers and the Wii is great if you want to play something simple for about 5 minutes but steadily gets less fun after than (in my opinion). So while Nintendo is selling alot of Wiis (and rumored to be making profit selling the hardware...very unusual in the early stages of a hardware launch) I don't know how much software they are going to move in the long run (or the "attach rate" as they say in the biz...how many games the average owner of a given system buys). So Nintendo is getting new customers, but I don't know if these folks are going to plunk down the green over the long run....while the hardcore gamers are more of niche market, they do pony up the cash for buy a large number of games. But that said, the Wii is apparently very affordable to develop games for, so publishers may be happy with a large market that is less robust but cheap to write games for rather than smaller market of highly dedicated (and demanding) consumers but who require games that cost a ton of money create.

[Taro Toporific]

[GuyJean]

Sony's Unholy Row in 'Dumb' List
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7151474.stm

Fortune magazine has chosen Sony's use of Manchester Cathedral as the backdrop to a violent game as one of its "101 Dumb Moments in Business" for 2007. The gaffe was picked at number 63 by the US publication in its list of "the dumbest of the dumb" occurrences.

Sony apologised to the Church of England for using the cathedral as a backdrop to "Resistance: Fall of Man"...

GJ