News - Sony warns of "painful" decisions to turn TV business around

[HEXUS]

Sony CEO warns of the impact of restructure as company sets sights on profitable future.

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[Brewster0101]

Sony is a company that had relied on its name and brands (such as playstation) too much that the names would help sell products regardless how good they are. For a number of years they have refused to wake up and realise that their competitors were offering better, cheaper products and quite frankly better support.
The brand Sony is nothing in 2012 compared to 10 years ago or more.

I don't think Kazuo Hirai will change the fortunes of Sony. Sony is on the road that Kodak is on.

[Hicks12]

Think you summed it up nicely Brewster, they were to confident on their name being everything and when you walk into places like richer sounds you see sony displays selling for stupid amounts where as you can get a better performing(looking) panasonic plasma or less or in terms of LCD the samsung or LG are decimating, basically they both look epic compared to one another just that LG offers passive 3d and samsung active 3d.

Sony needs to half their prices to get anything useful in terms of sale from the tv market. I think they will do much better with the PS4 on the basis that people are still peeved about playstation network hacking etc, its damaged their name massively... possibly unrecoverable!

[Lee H]

Sony started to go downhill quickly when they went down the route of using their own proprietary flash storage on their devices for which they had the cheek to charge premiums on.

As for the TV Market, they totally underestimated the rest of the other manufacturers and stagnated while LG and Samsung came on leaps and bounds.

[shaithis]

I remember back in the day when most people had a Sony amp, Micro system, midi system or some component or other in their AV racks......it's been a good decade since that was the case though with number dwindling all the time.

I am amazed it's taken them until 2012 to do something major about it!

[Brewster0101]

Sony started to go downhill quickly when they went down the route of using their own proprietary flash storage on their devices for which they had the cheek to charge premiums on.

This is Sony thinking they can change the world with every technology they make since their success with the Walkman. They've had so many proprietary format fails, it must be hard for them to keep count. I guess they're having semi success with bluray too. They must spend an awful lot of money on development of junk.

[shaithis]

BluRay they only "won" because of how much money they paid certain studios to go BD exclusive.....I believe they have lost every other format war.

[Hicks12]

Well i dont think Sony really get much money from Bluray, if i remember rightly its a big group (bluray alliance association?) that developed it including people like Panasonic and pioneer, id assume sony only get a portion of the profits really so not much in that case.

Edit: also, as shaithis said BR won due to studios supporting it but more importantly Sony were able to push it with their ps3, if microsoft had pushed HD-dvd onto 360 or if sony wasnt able to push bluray into their console it would have won as at the time it was the superior format (only now are we beginning to have BR that have the same features of hd-dvd...), not to mention it was cheaper to produce and already had a 5 layer disc ready to product (75GB, 5*15gb).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sony is on the road that Kodak is on.

I am not sure if I entirely agree with that assessment TBH. Sony is undergoing issues like loads of Japanese companies(the disaster in Japan and the floods in Thailand have added significantly to the woes),but comparing them to Kodak is perhaps taking a bit too far IMHO. Kodak was reliant primarily on the consumer photographic market(basically one market),but Sony has investments in loads of areas. Sony had $80+ billion dollar revenues last year,$150+ billion assets and shedloads of patents in multiple areas.

If anything a more streamlined Sony,not stretching itself thin in a million markets will probably be fine. It will take a strong CEO to identify the loss making parts of the company and either reform them or shut them down. Remember,how bad a position Apple was in the late 1990s when it nearly became bankrupt.

[cheesemp]

I think Sony's problem is they think they can be like apple - i.e. have proprietary file formats, flash cards and media plus charge a premium. Its just that no one is falling for it any more. I'm also disappointed what they are doing with Sony Ericsson. Again they copy apple - No memory card slot and fixed battery in the latest models!

[crossy]

(Sony is on the road that Kodak is on.) I am not sure if I entirely agree with that assessment TBH. Sony is undergoing issues like loads of Japanese companies(the disaster in Japan and the floods in Thailand have added significantly to the woes),but comparing them to Kodak is perhaps taking a bit too far IMHO. Kodak was reliant primarily on the consumer photographic market(basically one market),but Sony has investments in loads of areas. Sony had $80+ billion dollar revenues last year,$150+ billion assets and shedloads of patents in multiple areas.

If anything a more streamlined Sony,not stretching itself thin in a million markets will probably be fine. It will take a strong CEO to identify the loss making parts of the company and either reform them or shut them down. Remember,how bad a position Apple was in the late 1990s when it nearly became bankrupt.

+1 on this. Heck, you could do a darned good version of the Monty Python "What have the Romans ever done for us?" about Sony. Sure I'll be the first to admit that (a) they insisted that they were a "premium brand" (with premium prices!) when in reality they were mediocre; and (b) stupid insistence on proprietary formats (Memory Sticks, ATRAC, UMDs, etc).

On the other hand they DO still turn out some good products. The Bravia I got was a What Hi Fi "Best Product" and class winner. Similarly the home theatre kit also won awards. My A840 series Walkman is great - waaayyyyy better sound quality than any of the overpriced tat from Apple and it's OLED screen, while small, is pin sharp for video. People here seem impressed with the PSP Vita (even though I'm not). And so on ...

I think Sony's problem is they think they can be like apple - i.e. have proprietary file formats, flash cards and media plus charge a premium. Its just that no one is falling for it any more. I'm also disappointed what they are doing with Sony Ericsson. Again they copy apple - No memory card slot and fixed battery in the latest models!

I'm kind of glad that SonyEricsson is now Sony - although the non-removable memory and especially non-removable battery in the Xperia S are moronic. Hopefully this is just a one-off, and the other Xperia's will be proper phones with uSD slots and user-replaceable batteries. That said, I'm probably going to Samsung for my next phone, even though my little X10 has been a pretty reasonable piece of kit all told - although if they do an MWC launch of a dual-core "Cybershot" phone with an optical zoom, or a "Walkman" phone with noise cancellation and a decent music player, then I could be persuaded to stay brand loyal.

[cheesemp]

I'm kind of glad that SonyEricsson is now Sony - although the non-removable memory and especially non-removable battery in the Xperia S are moronic. Hopefully this is just a one-off, and the other Xperia's will be proper phones with uSD slots and user-replaceable batteries. That said, I'm probably going to Samsung for my next phone, even though my little X10 has been a pretty reasonable piece of kit all told - although if they do an MWC launch of a dual-core "Cybershot" phone with an optical zoom, or a "Walkman" phone with noise cancellation and a decent music player, then I could be persuaded to stay brand loyal.

I'm not so sure on that one off thing. Its the sort of stupid decision I normally associate with Sony. I agree my X10 has been great (If a little slow getting 2.3) but I'm just not interested in a phone that seems designed for idiots - Who can't cope with a replaceable battery and SD card! That plus I hate timescape and have had it disabled since 3 months after buying the X10! I think I might go samsung next as at least they are getting good on firmware updates although I'm keeping an eye on HTC and Motorola...

[vrykyl]

Was going to mention the walkman - again sony didnt inovate quickly enough, tried to force the mini-disc on the world (which I actually liked, but failed anyway) and was then left behind by mp3 players... the walkman brand means nothing now (except cheap mobile phones relying on music playback) - 10 years ago everyone wanted one!

TV's are the same - cost too much, and just arent good enough vs the competition.

[DannyM]

Sony since last year and early this year have actually churned out some decent stuff, especially in the TV market, it was a big improvement on the years before.

Their MP3 players have always been good, just never hit the sweet spot for price and features for the general consumer. The cameras Sony have on offer are half decent too. Their phone division has been on the up for a few months now, still a lot of work needed mind.

I think most folk who think Sony are not what they used to be are correct to an extent, but I still think they do well you just don't recognise it as much because the competition they have also produce good quality products.

I'm looking forward to seeing the OLED sets from CES on offer this year from Sony. I'm glad that they acknowledge change is necessary. Looking forward to seeing what is in the works.

[p5-]

Quite surprised that they're struggling with their TV business. I guess the competition is just too tough in the LCD market for them to compete with Samsung. I've always thought their "niche" (if you like) with their televisions is that they're those one or two steps better than LG/Samsung.

[crossy]

TV's are the same - cost too much, and just arent good enough vs the competition.

See second para of comment #11 above - so no, I don't agree.

Actually I'm going to agree with p5-'s comment - I too thought that Sony were supposed to be in the game of "a little bit pricier for a bit more quality". When we were TV shopping we looked at LG, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp and Phillips (actually went out to buy a Phillips) before settling on the Sony, pretty much on the quality of it's picture. Oh, and it was only around £50 more than a Samsung of equivalent spec.

Like you though, (although I cut that bit of the comment out - oops), I really wish the new Sony management "do" something with the "Walkman" brand instead of relying on past glories - they've got the products (my Walkman MP3/4 player was about the same price as an iPod Nano of the time - but it comes with noise-cancelling headphones instead of the Nano's camera) but need some "market awareness".