It's official: Sony f'ed up

[matsuki]

Hehe. What? The road to nowhere...

I'd say something more like "marching out to sea on yesterdays pier."

[2triky]

[Coligny]

ONCE AGAIN:

Sold to the public or to retailers...

The Vita is pointless... they fucked up enough with the PSP... who could barely go online... then was rumored to have a keyboard who got canceled... then another device the size of the PSP was sold with a keyboard for pocket interwab access the genious at Sony thinking "these suckers will buy anything"... At least it make a relatively mediocre car GPS...

(starting to consider buying a PS3 now that the price have gone sufficiently low... do you know if a euro version of GTurismo would work online from japan ?)

[2triky]

.

(starting to consider buying a PS3 now that the price have gone sufficiently low... do you know if a euro version of GTurismo would work online from japan ?)

I'm inclined to say that it should work. It's my understanding that PS3 games are region free and are thus playable regardless of geographical location.

[2triky]

Sony Job Cuts: Japanese Electronics Giant Reportedly Plans To Slash 10,000 Jobs In Turnaround Bid

* Jobs could go as early as this year

* Chemicals, LCD ops to account for half the cuts

* Seven execs may be asked to hand back bonuses - Nikkei

* Sony shares close up 0.6 pct, market drops 1.5 pct

By Chris Gallagher

TOKYO, April 9 (Reuters) -Japan's Sony Corp is to cut 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red.

The job cuts would be the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from cellphone maker NEC Corp to electronics firm Panasonic Corp are trimming costs in the face of a strong yen and competition from rivals like Apple and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

TV makers in particular have been hit hard by the tough business climate as well as sharp price falls, with Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expecting to have lost a combined $17 billion in the fiscal year just ended...

<big snip>...

...Sony declined to comment on the report.

Sony announced 16,000 job cuts in December 2008 after the global financial crisis battered demand for its products, but it has not managed to make a profit since then.

The company has forecast a 220 billion yen ($2.7 billion) net loss for the fiscal year just ended, hurt in large part by its ailing TV business.

Sony said last month that Hirai would keep direct charge of the TV business as part of a structural reorganisation.

Sony shares closed up 0.6 percent, while the benchmark Nikkei average ended 1.5 percent lower. The stock has dropped more than 10 percent in the past 3 weeks since hitting a 7-month high.

[matsuki]

Seven execs may be asked to hand back bonuses - Nikkei

LOL:violin:

[Mike Oxlong]

Hackers hit Sony again, stealing info from 400 mobile clients

Sony said Thursday that hackers stole details belonging to hundreds of its mobile unit clients, the latest in a string of cyberattacks to hit the embattled Japanese electronics giant.

A group calling itself “Null\Crew” said it had attacked a mobile communications server, with a Sony spokesman confirming the cyber thieves had grabbed information belonging to 400 customers in mainland China and Taiwan.

Null\Crew, which reportedly has links to international computer hacking group Anonymous, posted online usernames, e-mails and some passwords along with a statement critical of the Japanese firm.

“Sony, we are dearly disappointed in your security,” it said, adding that it had gained control of eight Sony servers, which could not be immediately confirmed.

“Not even your customers can trust you,” it added.

The company spokesman said the incident was being investigated and added that the server with client details belonged to an unnamed “third party”, and not Sony itself.

In April last year Sony suffered a massive data breach that compromised more than 100 million accounts and forced it to temporarily halt its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.

And in October, the firm suspended 93,000 accounts on its online entertainment networks, which let users play videogames and watch movies, after detecting a wave of unauthorized sign-in attempts.

The entertainment giant has been battling to restore consumer trust after the initial security gaffe, with a string of subsequent attacks on websites including in Greece, Thailand and Indonesia.

In another incident, a group of hackers known as Lulz Security in June said they had compromised more than one million passwords, email addresses and other information from SonyPictures.com.

The Telegraph

[Taro Toporific]

Twitter-_-DailyGomiuri_-Son.png

twitter.com/DailyGomiuri

[matsuki]

LOL, so when does Sony's demise get totally blamed on FG?

I saw some news show on sat night that was going on and on about how "We Japanese" need to innovate and was showing some J-robot that was trying to emulate Steve Jobs. Of course the staff of his company were all "We Japanese" and stuck in J-land, with the only real asset being that they were youngin's that were at least interested in thinking outside the box. I somehow doubt they will ever get it.

[Taro Toporific]

Sony considering sale of US headquarters
Sept. 21, 2012 (NHKReloaded) NHK World News
Struggling Japanese electronics maker Sony says it may sell its US headquarters in New York to improve the firm's finances.
Sony bought the 36-story building in Manhattan from US telecom giant AT&T in 2002. The building houses Sony's local head office and other tenants...more...

[FG Lurker]

Ya know, I hate the Sony of days gone by but I'm so tired of Apple and Samsung domination that I'd like to see Sony get their shit together and make a comeback. They have the brand to do it. If they produced some seriously kickass phones and tablets they could be a good representative of Japan Inc.

Unfortunately I doubt they are capable of it, but it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again.

[Mike Oxlong]

I think their successor is Samsung.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

....it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again...

We could always start with Hashimoto...

[cstaylor]

....it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again...

We could always start with Hashimoto...

I think he said, "ass-kicking coming out of Japan" not "kick that ass out of Japan".

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

....it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again...

We could always start with Hashimoto...

I think he said, "ass-kicking coming out of Japan" not "kick that ass out of Japan".

Very glad to stand corrected!

[matsuki]

Don't worry, he'll still get an ass kicking while he comes out as a zainichi gay homophobe with a bunch of North Korean Tattoos on his ass.

[Taro Toporific]

Sony to lay off more than 2,800 employees in Japan as restructuring continues
theverge.com | October 20, 2012
...the company has just announced information on a further 2,840 layoffs...as part of the latest round of restructuring...
...Additionally, the company is implementing an "early retirement program" that will affect approximately 2,000 employees by the end of its fiscal year in March. The program is expected to reduce the workforce headcount by 20 percent at Sony headquarters ...more...

sony-screwed-up.jpg

[gaijinpunch]

Ya know, I hate the Sony of days gone by but I'm so tired of Apple and Samsung domination that I'd like to see Sony get their shit together and make a comeback. They have the brand to do it. If they produced some seriously kickass phones and tablets they could be a good representative of Japan Inc.

Unfortunately I doubt they are capable of it, but it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again.

I may be in the minority but I mainly remember the Sony of the 90's and on, in which the build quality of most the Sony products I purchased was not worth the price. Plenty of my stuff broke... enough to write them off as a company.

[Coligny]

Ya know, I hate the Sony of days gone by but I'm so tired of Apple and Samsung domination that I'd like to see Sony get their shit together and make a comeback. They have the brand to do it. If they produced some seriously kickass phones and tablets they could be a good representative of Japan Inc.

Unfortunately I doubt they are capable of it, but it would be nice to see a bit of ass-kicking coming out of Japan again.

I may be in the minority but I mainly remember the Sony of the 90's and on, in which the build quality of most the Sony products I purchased was not worth the price. Plenty of my stuff broke... enough to write them off as a company.

And it was the days where they were delusionnal enough to think they needed a cheaper label... Aiwa...

[yanpa]

Oh, I always thought that was a fake Japanese brand name like "Saisho" or "Matsui".

[Mike Oxlong]

The ghosts of Sony

By our man Jake...

[matsuki]

The representative of a major European investor in Sony recalls his meeting with Iide very unfavorably.
“I came to Japan to talk to Mr. Iide about our growing concerns with Sony’s direction. We had dinner together. I wanted to talk about profit margins; he wanted to talk about the wine we were having. He struck me as a clueless.”
When the investor pointed out that Sony’s operating profits on electronic products were roughly 2-4% and that Samsung was making similar products at a 30% profit margin, Iide hushed him by saying, “They make the parts for our products. We put them together. It’s the difference between a steel maker and an automobile maker. We make the automobiles.”
The investor countered, “Well, I’ve got news for you—the people you laid off from the car plant are now working at the steel mill, and soon the steel mills will be building cars with your technology.”
The warning was not heeded. It was 2004 when they last met, and while the iPod was increasingly becoming the to-go platform for mobile music and multi-media contents, Sony or rather Iide, didn’t take it seriously.
When Sony announced that it would be appointing Howard Stringer to be the new CEO in 2005, the investor sent Stringer a message and offer of support via Sony’s Japan office. Stringer was in charge of the company for several months before the investor heard from Stringer himself that the message had not gone through. The investor drastically reduced their interests in Sony.
“We still have shares in the company so I don’t want to say much more but it was clear to me by 2004 that Sony was a company at war with itself and that the seeds of its downfall had already been planted by Iide and nurtured by his cronies, and that they were quickly taking root.”

This pretty much sums up most the attitude of most Japanese for me. Totally out of touch with their place in the world and too caught up in the "We Japanese" pride of previous and totally beside the point accomplishments to even recognize how dire their situation is. Japan's rise to an economic power was damn fast but the fall is going to be even faster...

[Taro Toporific]

Sony and Panasonic given junk ratings
Finacial Times | November 22, 2012
Fitch has cut the credit ratings of Sony and Panasonic to junk, saying that the recovery of both companies rests on aggressive and far-reaching restructuring.
The credit rating agency on Thursday downgraded Sony three notches to double B minus, from triple B minus and cut Panasonic two notches to double B, from triple B minus.
More behind the fcuked registration wall...

[Taro Toporific]

ONCE AGAIN:
The Vita is pointless... they fucked up enough with the PSP... who could barely go online...

Sony's Portable Console Dying Ugly in Japan
forbes.com | 11/23/2012
For Sony’s previous handheld, the PSP, Japan was an anchor market. The system launched in Japan in 2004 and has sold 14 Million units there – just slightly below the 17 Million units it moved in the United States. Sony obviously hoped to maintain the home field advantage with the PS Vita, the new portable console that debuted at the end of 2011.
The performance of Vita in Japan has been nothing short of atrocious on so many levels. On the week ending November 11, the unit volume in Japan was a shocking 4,021. The eight-years-old PSP sold 12,000 units during the same week. This is a rare example of a new console failing to dislodge the old one even after one year on the market.
Nintendo’s 3DS continued its rampage, moving 186’000 units during the week – 46 times more than its handheld rival. PS Vita has probably already edged into the dead zone where developers start yanking support for stand-alone projects.
Ouchie
The week of November 11 was another bad period for Vita – but arguably the week of November 18 was even worse. The sales of Vita rebounded from 4,000 to 13,000, but the increase was intolerably weak considering that this was the Assassin’s Creed III launch period in Japan...more...

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[Coligny]

Still trying to find a use for my PRS600 ereader... failed
PSP... the excellently mediocre GPS of the whip...

You cant go back to their desperate analog thumb control for racing games after playing Real Racing with the iphone tilt sensor... UNPOSSIBLE...

(

[Taro Toporific]

Sony puts Tokyo building up for sale in $1.1 billion deal: sources
TOKYO | Thu Jan 10, 2013 (Reuters)---Sony Corp has put one of its main buildings in central Tokyo up for sale in a deal that could raise as much as 100 billion yen ($1.14 billion) as the company seeks to sell non-core assets to generate cash...Sony is trying to sell the 25-storey Sony City Osaki building that houses 5,000 employees...Sony City Osaki was completed in March 2011 after the company renovated a building...more...

[sublight]

"At war with itself" is a great way to describe Sony.

I did one project with them quite a while back, making an instruction video for one of their audio-video products. It showed people how to set up the product, and we figured that for clip of music or movie to show the product was working, Sony had the rights to a great selection of films and music to choose from that would show ff the product benefits perfectly.

No dice. "We can't work with Sony Entertainment." So they had to go with rental stock footage. Same thing when we did audio ads for them.

On another project, Sony HQ had to hire Sony Music to be a go-between between them and Sony Stores International, and Sony Music in turn had to hire us to do their job because they couldn't figure out how to work with either one.

I swear, if you asked the Bravia team who their biggest competitor was, they wouldn't say Samsung or Hitachi, they'd tell you "Handycam" or "Blu-Ray".

[yanpa]

Dated, probably well-known but I've never seen it before, so I'll leave it here for posterity:

SONY. Because caucasians are just too damn tall.

[Taro Toporific]

Diamond cries ‘murder’ on the dancefloor
The Japan Times | 2013jan31
In its Jan. 12 edition, the Japanese business magazine Diamond Weekly decided to ring in the new year with a 10-page feature titled, “Who’s Killing Music?” It was the topic of much discussion and reaction in the music business, and the article even made the agenda during a meeting of the Japanese music industry’s trade group the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
As for the question raised in the provocative headline, Diamond gives a short answer and a longer answer. The short answer is "Sony." The long answer is “Sony and a lingering inability of the industry as a whole to adapt to technological changes..."
More...

make-believe.jpg

[Doctor Stop]

Sony announces ex-CEO Stringer's retirement
May 09, 2013(Mainichi Japan)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Sony Corp. said Wednesday its Chairman of the Board Howard Stringer and former President Ryoji Chubachi will retire from its board upon approval at a shareholders' meeting on June 20. Sony announced three candidates as new members of the board, including Eiko Harada, chairman and president of McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd., and plans to reappoint its President Kazuo Hirai to the 13-member board.