DuckThor Evil
Legend
Patsu I'd like to hear your current thoughts on Sony going forwards? Do you see light or darkness?
I'd love to hear other opinions as well!
I'd love to hear other opinions as well!
Sony's content platform and business strategy *spawn
- Thread starter boommoob1
- Start date
My opinion is that they're in a tough spot. They're definitely doing the right thing moving forward in focussing on a more integrated vision of all their products and realising software and services are a vital component of any modern electronics these days, but the clock is ticking.
Incidentally, if we narrow down the focus to the Playstation branch, I think that part of Sony is actually relatively small and quite healthy. I think that part may live much longer than Sony itself.
A company's vulnerability is best measured by its cash-flow. As long as a company has more money than debt, it's usually in a pretty good position to last.
I have no idea what Sony's balance currently looks like though. Probably not great, after that last write-off.Look at Sony tablet P. that should tell you how out of touch they are with the market as a whole.
I dare someone to buy it...
I give them one more chance. They need to implement a unified experience, like iOS, and with compelling products at a good price. PS4 needs to be a part of that. If they can't manage this by PS4's release across their TVs, handhelds, and phones, then I reckon they're sunk.
In order to pull this off, the following needs to happen:
1. Move all software and services to silicon. Japan is not the place for this.
2. Hire some well known talent from the SV
3. Put ONE guy incharge of this and give him full control. No designs by politics and committee
If all this happens, there is a good chance they will be able to pull this off. Otherwise, poor execution and satisfying checkboxes is all they will continue to do.
How 'bout *both* ?
... coz I don't have enough info to ascertain yet. Kaz has a pow wow tomorrow. Let's see what he says first.
The recently appointed Sony Mobile head is supposed to handle user interface for all Sony devices. Structure-wise, Kaz needs to work around existing baggages (or shred them ^_^).
I have a feeling the public want to see something go from Sony Japan. So if Kaz lobes off a big (low margin) chunk from Sony, many people outside will likely applaud. It's a symbolic move to part from the tradition. If he tries to carry too much forward, balls may start dropping.
The rest is execution. Talent in the west is important but growth markets in the east and elsewhere are interesting. I suspect (though may be wrong) they only need a small but talented technical team to spearhead 1-2 dedicated projects. They should choose an area (or areas) and go into attack mode. I wouldn't bet on the big cross platform stuff because those will be too slow and too bulky to set any pace, or lit the world on fire. They are more a defensive move.
Embedded programmers, game programmers, PC programmers, system integrators, web developers, server system programmers and admins are all different. They will need someone with depth to manage the end-to-end businesses. They need to be careful of western or even silicon valley big names. Some can talk but can't really execute too. They may also demand a lot of $$$ up front. Best is to look for a working team.
The other symbolic info people are watching is any sign of tangible newness or trophies. Like Music Unlimited is just the same old music service, although given Sony's reach and structure depth, they could have (but haven't) turned them into tangible advantages.
The last thing is Sony needs to buy me lunch, or breakfast (coz I skipped breakfast). No really, they should reward their current user base that have carried them so far. Sony Group have done some amazing work, but their product marketing people -- the tactical ones -- should shoulder some responsibilities for their current state. Perhaps the CFO and legal and security departments also need to look at themselves coz these 3 departments are usually notorious for blocking innovative movement inside a company. Either way, regardless of whose faults it was, the top guy will have to solve the problem. There are probably too many smart people inside trying to push their own projects (See Qore vs Pulse vs PS+). I wouldn't be surprised the CFO is right in many cases.
Disclaimer: All these are my speculation based on my past failures. They are not necessarily Sony's problems.
EDIT: I do like Kaz's sense of urgency so far. He's a marketing guy. I can see him selling the urgency to his bosses, staff and press. It's a good start. But the proof is in the execution. He'll probably need to set some expectation. It usually takes time.
EDIT 2: The other way is to throw something out for the public to chew on, but have a hidden move to drive the real recovery. Occasionally, young effort needs to be protected from an overly zealous (and sometimes stupid) mob
or the board.
Just read a NY Times story on Sony.
Very ambitious goals, like earning $22 billion in sales in mobile in 3 years. I think only Apple and Samsung have those kinds of revenues? Maybe Nokia too, since they ship a lot of low-end phones. Not impossible. Xperia isn't a big brand but hey Samsung Galaxy has only existed a couple of years and the iPhone itself, not much longer than that.
Of course, they'd be dependent on Android and it's a tough slog in Android for everyone but Samsung. That may be developing into a race to the bottom type of market, unless HTC and Motorola can claw back some share from Samsung.
They're going to leverage their content and integrate the smart phones, tablets, PCs and game consoles to share content (that you'd buy). So basically imitate what Apple did with iTunes.
For the games business, they're targeting sales of 1 trillion yen by March 2015 (it's at 800 billion yen currently) and double operating profit. So Vita and PS4 are vital (pun intended) to their turnaround strategy.
Finally looking to increase imaging sales -- cameras and camcorders -- to 1.5 trillion yen in 3 years and triple operating profit. They make some nice cameras but they'd have to take a lot of share from Nikon and Canon on the high end and Panasonic and some others in the higher-end point and shoot cameras or those segments which aren't losing sales to smart phone cameras.
So all this is going to come to a head in 2015.
As for moving people to Silicon Valley, it would be a hard thing, moving design and R&D jobs from Japan to the US. Loss of honor/face for a proud Japanese company, which probably isn't happy that a South Korean rival has become prominent leader in a lot of electronics categories.
High yen isn't helping them, especially when they need to sell in the US and China, whose currency is pegged to the dollar so probably not doing well against the yen either. Wonder how Sony is viewed in China, whether it's as big an aspirational brand as Apple or if Sony is viewed the same way in Asia as it used to be 10 years ago.
Very ambitious goals, like earning $22 billion in sales in mobile in 3 years. I think only Apple and Samsung have those kinds of revenues? Maybe Nokia too, since they ship a lot of low-end phones. Not impossible. Xperia isn't a big brand but hey Samsung Galaxy has only existed a couple of years and the iPhone itself, not much longer than that.
Of course, they'd be dependent on Android and it's a tough slog in Android for everyone but Samsung. That may be developing into a race to the bottom type of market, unless HTC and Motorola can claw back some share from Samsung.
They're going to leverage their content and integrate the smart phones, tablets, PCs and game consoles to share content (that you'd buy). So basically imitate what Apple did with iTunes.
For the games business, they're targeting sales of 1 trillion yen by March 2015 (it's at 800 billion yen currently) and double operating profit. So Vita and PS4 are vital (pun intended) to their turnaround strategy.
Finally looking to increase imaging sales -- cameras and camcorders -- to 1.5 trillion yen in 3 years and triple operating profit. They make some nice cameras but they'd have to take a lot of share from Nikon and Canon on the high end and Panasonic and some others in the higher-end point and shoot cameras or those segments which aren't losing sales to smart phone cameras.
So all this is going to come to a head in 2015.
As for moving people to Silicon Valley, it would be a hard thing, moving design and R&D jobs from Japan to the US. Loss of honor/face for a proud Japanese company, which probably isn't happy that a South Korean rival has become prominent leader in a lot of electronics categories.
High yen isn't helping them, especially when they need to sell in the US and China, whose currency is pegged to the dollar so probably not doing well against the yen either. Wonder how Sony is viewed in China, whether it's as big an aspirational brand as Apple or if Sony is viewed the same way in Asia as it used to be 10 years ago.
DuckThor Evil
Legend
Yeah they are definitely quite bullish with the mobile sector numbers... TV-business is going to be scaled down a lot, that should boost their bottom line at least. In general sounds like a nice vision, but I want to see the products that are supposed to make all that happen. The integration part should help, but can they really turn themselves into super competitive just like that?
Sony seems to have lost their design touch to sell premium hardware (Tablet P ... wtf), and I'm not convinced Sony can compete in the software services business, or even in the embedded software business. More and more, consumer products sell because of their soft features. Getting stuck in the Android business for their tablets and phones seems like a tough place to be. I'm not sure what they could do to claw some of that market share away from the players that established themselves earlier. And if the Tablet P is any indication, they don't have any ideas either.
Their problem stems from software. That is why they lost in the iPod business (their MP3 player had horrible PC clients) and that is why they can't differentiate.
They have to rely on MS for VAIO PCs (not sure how big a business that is) and on Android for mobile. Presumably, they use the same Chinese manufacturers as anyone else these days. But they don't have the ID chops any more either. The VAIO laptops stood out at one time, for instance.
Now they're going to use commodity hardware (AMD) and limited software differentiation. Only Samsung is currently thriving because they have a huge components business -- NAND, displays, etc.
Otherwise, Apple has their own software and they cut deals with the studios for the content.
They have to rely on MS for VAIO PCs (not sure how big a business that is) and on Android for mobile. Presumably, they use the same Chinese manufacturers as anyone else these days. But they don't have the ID chops any more either. The VAIO laptops stood out at one time, for instance.
Now they're going to use commodity hardware (AMD) and limited software differentiation. Only Samsung is currently thriving because they have a huge components business -- NAND, displays, etc.
Otherwise, Apple has their own software and they cut deals with the studios for the content.
Sony brand is still pretty popular still in HK, China should be about the same, with Android owning like 70% of the smart phone market over there which was what I read yesterday I think it should be the biggest martket for them. Can't say much about the US though, in Canada, their phones are not very common. I think Europeans ppl say their Xperia S is on very high demand over there. What Sony really need to improve is really speed, they tents to do things a step behind Samsung and everyone else. Release products that have the same specs as the competitors half a year ago. And Vita really need to get some new functionality added in, their PS suites are still up in the air.
I guess Sony's only real advantage is that they have media under their umbrella, but the way they're using Spiderman to push cameras is kind of pathetic. They do have content to distribute, but I'm just not convinced they'll have a good service that could compete with iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Microsoft. All of those other brands have established their place in content delivery. What is Sony going to do to rock the boat and claw their way in? Selling a phone running Android doesn't seem like a good place to start. The Android market already has established players. How do they differentiate their hardware and software in a meaningful way? How do you make your Android phone the de facto standard? The whole Playstation certified thing with the Xperia PLAY doesn't seem to be taking off. Their tablet looks like a huge POS. I just don't see where they're going or how they are positioning themselves to protect their brand. I don't think people view Sony as a premium brand anymore, outside of gaming circles. If Sony goes with generic parts in their next Playstation, do they have the software and services chops to compete with Microsoft? They won't have BluRay as a selling point this time around.
Also this: http://onion.com/aYw02w
Also this: http://onion.com/aYw02w
Samsung and ASUS?
Asus kind of drop the ball on transformer prime due to the 3G thing, and I was planning getting the Asus padfone though. I never have good experience with Samsung nexus thing, thought the nexus line up were suppose to get all the update first but it wasn't the case anymore. Transformer Prime got the first ICS update if I remember correctly. To me Asus is kind of like the company that understand what those tech geek wants, they want to get their hands on the newest version of the OS and tech asap, and asus update their stuffs quite frequently. Where to me Samsung is just one of those company that think "oh we got your money, thanks and bye". As for Sony tablet, the ergonomic design is great, it actually feel nice to hold it unlike ipad or even my transformer. As for performance, its has the same specs as other tablet so I am assuming that it runs just as good as my transformer.
Every other company that makes Android tablets?
Sony still has some sleek ID but Sony products don't stand out like they used to.
Sony TVs were more expensive but they looked it. They used to be so invested in exotic display technologies and none of them panned out. Now the Korean companies are trying to bring big screen OLED TVs to market while Sony is retrenching from the TV market, though there is suppose to be some big consortium of Japanese companies banding together to make TVs.
They're going to have to find some special sauce for their products.
Sony TVs were more expensive but they looked it. They used to be so invested in exotic display technologies and none of them panned out. Now the Korean companies are trying to bring big screen OLED TVs to market while Sony is retrenching from the TV market, though there is suppose to be some big consortium of Japanese companies banding together to make TVs.
They're going to have to find some special sauce for their products.
The Tablet S is a nice piece of kit, it looks, feels, and performs like a top tier tablet. Admittedly my Asus Prime walks all over it in terms of performance and neither of them feel quite as slick as my iPad.
But if given the choice of an entire day spent using a tablet I would opt for the Sony as it does just what it says on the box and is very comfortable to use.
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