Sony's content platform and business strategy *spawn

[ergem]

Every other company that makes Android tablets?

That's not true. The tablet S is one of the best Android tablet on the market now. In my mind it's the best Tegra2-based Android tablet. And compared to the Galaxy 10.1, the screen and ergonomics is better. It even won in CNET prizefight against the galaxy tab. The ASUS transformer prime on the other hand is the best Android tablet performance-wise.

 

[ergem]

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.

Let me correct you on that. The joint venture between Sony, Toshiba, and Hitatchi funded by the Japanese government is for small and medium sized display for smartphones and tablets. Its CEO has already stated that they will start to manufacture OLED screens March 2013. It claims that its implementation of OLED will be superior than the Samsung ones because they can make them over 300 pixel per inch yet more energy efficient.

With regard to exotic technology, Sony has been on a spending spree in their R&D for the last 4-5 years now.

I've been closely following the Sony Crystal LED since it was announced. And I found few articles in the internet that if you try to connect the dots (pun intended) would strongly suggest that Sony has been readying to release a QUANTUM DOT DISPLAY.

November 11, 2011
According to the Sony chief executive, who spoke yesterday with The Wall Street Journal, his company has a "tremendous amount of research and development going into a different kind of TV set." Stringer declined to provide details on what his company's television might offer.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322958-17/sony-working-on-a-different-kind-of-tv-set/

Sony Crystal LED is semiconductor based just like quantum dot. All the qualities of quantum dot display is present in the Sony Crystal LED display except perhaps the supposed 10x brightness of quantum dots.

Nanoco, a british company which makes quantum dot, has been supplying a major electronic company with their cadmium-free quantum dots since January last year.

01/04/2011 Manchester
Nanoco Group plc (AIM: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots, announces that it has successfully produced the 1kg batch of red cadmium-free quantum dots (CFQD™) specified by a major Japanese corporation, which triggers a US$2 million payment to Nanoco by the corporation.

http://www.nanocotechnologies.com/c..._US2m_Milestone_for_Red_Quantum_Dots/327.aspx

31/01/2012 Manchester Nanoco Group plc(AIM: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, announces that it has achieved the performance milestone for green quantum dots being developed in its supply and licence agreement with a major Japanese corporation, triggering a US$1 million payment.

http://www.nanocotechnologies.com/c...nce_Milestone_for_Green_Quantum_Dots/342.aspx

January 2012: CES. Sony showed that they are working on a semiconductor based display and their calling it Crystal LED. They are the only company that has shown so far anything that resembles a quantum dot display.

14/02/2012 Manchester Nanoco Group plc (AIM: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, announces that it has signed a commercial joint development agreement (JDA) with a major electronics company in Asia in connection with the use of the Company's cadmium-free quantum dots (CFQD™) in the electronics company's display products.

http://www.nanocotechnologies.com/c...s_Joint_Agreement_with_Asian_Company/344.aspx

Regarding Release Date: End of 2012

Sony execs told the Wall Street Journal that the Crystal LED Display technology is more stable than OLED, so there should be fewer manufacturing errors, which presumably could lower the price for the sets. While there’s no public timeline for when commercial sets using the new technology would be available, a Sony exec told the Journal that units will be available later this year.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/home-thea...crystal-led-display-hdtvs-beat-oled-sets/5578

The British company Nanoco has announced it is working with several unnamed electronics companies, with the intention of bringing the first quantum dot televisions to market by the end of 2012.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-t...to-introduce-quantum-dot-tvs-as-soon-as-2012/

But it could slip to 2013.

There is one rumor that Sony is shooting for a July 2013 release date.

March 27, 2012

The chief executive of Nanoco Group today said he expects the first products containing its quantum dot technology to hit the market next year and he is confident the business will turn its first profit in two years time.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereve...wo-years-to-hit-profit-says-nanoco-group-boss

Sony will fight back in 2013

"2013 will be the year when we will really fight back with new technologies,” said Negishi.

http://www.oled-display.net/sony-will-release-oled-tvs-for-consumer-market-in-2013/

Regarding Quantum Dot vs OLED

Quantum-dot technology has been on the verge of breaking into the mainstream for a while, with various companies exploring its use in all kinds of displays, and its advantages over LCD and OLED in televisions. These advantages include lower power consumption, a longer lifetime and more physical flexibility.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-t...to-introduce-quantum-dot-tvs-as-soon-as-2012/

1. Color range: Nanocrystal displays should be able to yield a greater portion of the visible spectrum than current technologies. As shown in the diagram, QD Vision calculates as much as 30% more of the visible spectrum would be available using QDs in a QD-LED vs. a CRT TV.
2. Low power consumption: QD Vision estimates its nanocrystal displays could use 30 to 50% less electrical power than an LCD, in large part because nanocrystal displays don't need a backlight.
3. Color accuracy: Nanocrystal displays would yield more purity in colors than other types of display technologies. Some display technologies, such as LCDs, can’t create a pure red, green, or blue for the display; instead, they need to add a few other colors to those three to display pure colors. Quantum dots, on the other hand, create pure red, green, and blue to create all other colors.
4. Brightness: 50~100 times brighter than CRT and LCD displays ~40,000 cd/m2
5. Added flexibility: QDs are soluble in both aqueous and non-aqueous solvents, which provides for printable and flexible displays of all sizes, including large area TVs
6. Improved lifetime: QDs are inorganic, which can give the potential for improved lifetimes when compared to alternative OLED technologies. However, since many parts of QD-LED are made of organic materials, further development is required to improve the functional lifetime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

Since no one really responded to this, having seen the CrystalLED in person during the show, the motion was nothing short of amazing. No lag, no blurring, no trailing colors, nothing. Perfect, smooth, just amazing as you really have never seen a display that looks like this in motion before. That was probably the most impressive thing about it, though I've also been focusing on motion resolution the past couple months so I'm just really sensitive to it at the moment.

I thought the Sony was the best display at the show, ahead of the OLED displays, and the 8K display, for a few reasons:

- Off-axis it was perfect. The LG OLED whites had a green tint off axis, and I didn't check well enough on the Samsung to be certain.
- Sony used much better, real world demo material. Samsung had a lot of CGI stuff that doesn't give you any indication how it might handle a skin tone, or a normal movie. LG had half of their sets running a horrid 3D demo loop (everything comes WAY out of the screen, giving me a headache instantly) and so it was harder to get a good feel for it. Seeing real material was very good.
- Motion was just so good. Nothing against the OLED displays, as they looked great, but just didn't have the same "wow" factor as the OLED.
- The Sharp 8K had incredible resolution, but otherwise the panel was just a bit ordinary in terms of off-axis, blacks, motion, and contrast ratio.

Chris Heinonen
Senior Editor, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, www.hometheaterhifi.com
Displays Editor, AnandTech.com
ISF Level II Certified Calibrator

 

[patsu]

...Crystal LED magic...

Awesome, I found a buddy for tritosine5G.

tritosine5G my bro, you don't have to PM me about your love for Crystal LED anymore. ergem here agrees with you. You can post openly in this forum like everyone else.


EDIT: Why do people hate Tablet P ? Have you used one ? I tried it and it seems more interesting than other Android tablets. Sure it may be distracting to have a center strip across your tablet screen, but it's functional and small when folded. Build quality is noticeably higher than Tablet S. They also created custom software for P.

Downside is the ridiculously high price. And er... what ? No dock for Tablet P ? Tablet S and other Xperia phones have Live Dock or Smart Dock.

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.

From what I read, Xperia S is (was ?) Japan's #1 selling phone since launch. I read somewhere that they also sold out of Xperia S (or equivalent model) in Europe. Supposed to be among top 5 phones there. A good start, but their main problem is not these individual successes. They still do make good products (that not enough people know).

The problem is sustained profitability in the face of both cheap and premium competition. Sony is good at one-off stuff but not so great at platform strategy. ^_^

 

[patsu]

Hirai's slides:
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/viewer/strategy/2012/

Transcript from his presentation:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11493358/1/sonys-ceo-hosts-corporate-strategy-meeting-transcript.html

Wall Street Journal's reporting:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120412-705849.html

 

[ergem]

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.

There is certainly some basis for Sony's confidence. Japan Display will soon manufacture OLED displays with over 300ppi.

Check slide 17 on this PDF. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/viewer/strategy/2012/
It shows how Sony will integrate their exclusive technologies to their smartphones. Sony could integrate the following:
1. S Master and other sound technologies found on their walkman line.
2. Mobile Bravia Engine for better pictures and videos. (The display found in Xperia S using the bravia engine judging by the comparison videos on youtube can provide better quality on pictures and videos compared to even AMOLED display. Now pair that with a high resolution OLED display )
3. Next generation camera sensors. (Sony has a lot of exclusive patents for camera sensors lately, including stacked sensors with larger integrated circuits, sensors with white pixels for better low-light performance, and very recently are the organic sensors using feveon arrangement rather than bayer for better colors and resolution)

Sony lacks in the CPU department. They haven't shown that they can release products on time with the latest and best CPU available. And their slower than the competition software and firmware updates.

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.

I say this is not a far-fetch ambition from Kaz. The increase in operating profit might come from the PS Suite business. But this will depend if they can make a timely execution.

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.

Sony's NEX line has been very successful story for Sony. They will continue to grow if they keep innovating in their images sensors (their competition is lagging behind). But they have to expand their lenses as they look pathetic compared to what Nikon and Canon have.

 

[Nesh]

I still dont see my Icecream Sandwich update on my Xperia Play!!
Sure thats slow!!

 

[Arwin]

HTC One X also has an above 300ppi display, but it is not OLED I think and that phone has some serious power and heat issues.

There's a rumor on Gaf btw that PS Suite apps are limited to using 96MB of RAM max. Personally that seems fine to me but I hear there are some complaints ...

 

[tuna]

Samsung and ASUS?

What is the point of answering a question with another question?

(Yes, the irony is not lost on me )

 

[tuna]

EDIT: Why do people hate Tablet P ? Have you used one ? I tried it and it seems more interesting than other Android tablets. Sure it may be distracting to have a center strip across your tablet screen, but it's functional and small when folded. Build quality is noticeably higher than Tablet S. They also created custom software for P.

Downside is the ridiculously high price. And er... what ? No dock for Tablet P ? Tablet S and other Xperia phones have Live Dock or Smart Dock.

For the same reason people hated the PSP Go without trying it. High price and unusual feature set will bring out the vocal bashers. All users/buyers seem pretty happy with both though.....

 

[Gitaroo]

HTC One X also has an above 300ppi display, but it is not OLED I think and that phone has some serious power and heat issues.

There's a rumor on Gaf btw that PS Suite apps are limited to using 96MB of RAM max. Personally that seems fine to me but I hear there are some complaints ...

nothing wrong with developers wanting more, 96 MB give it the same amount as 3DS games lol. The lowest common denominator so far in terms of PS suite support hardware is the experia play right, maybe apps will run best on Vita. But seriously I want to see something from it already.

 

[patsu]

I still dont see my Icecream Sandwich update on my Xperia Play!!
Sure thats slow!!

May be they are working with partners to fix the games:
http://www.xperiablog.net/2012/04/1...ics-beta-reporting-game-compatibility-issues/

Do you own an Xperia PLAY? Have you downloaded the official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich beta? If so, have you noticed that you existing games are working okay? Well apparently there are a number of developers who have not yet optimised their game titles for Ice Cream Sandwich.

Droid Gamers brought the issue to light when testing a number of Gameloft titles, although they aren’t the only culprit. From the nine games they tried on an Xperia PLAY running the ICS beta only two worked flawlessly. Bugs included graphical errors, freezing, control issues, whilst other games failed to even launch.

...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I had a revelation yesterday - Sony's content strategy seems to be to piss off all their customers and drive them to other services. We were going to watch a film, and I thought I'd see what was available on PSN to stream (was hoping Muppets was available). It wasn't, but I tried a trailer. I wasn't allowed to download it because I already had a PS3 activated for watching films. Huh? I rented one film on my old PS3 before it died. Rented. And because of that, I'm not allowed to buy or rent any other films on any other PS3 until I deactivate that old PS3. Which of course I can't do because it's dead. What the hell is their strategy with limiting who can rent films??! Lock that one film to that one PS3 if you must, but to make it impossible to use your PSN account across devices is moronic. There are many other services to choose from, and Sony are making it very easy to go use them instead.

As another dumb limitation, SEN movies can only be streamed to Sony tablets. They are such a bunch of idiots.

 

[Brad Grenz]

You can deactivate systems from their website.

 

[wco81]

If Apple is able to get rights to 5 devices at a time (may be 5 Macs and unlimited iOS devices) for music and movies purchased from iTunes, Sony should be able to get similar rights.

Especially since they own a studio and Apple doesn't.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You can deactivate systems from their website.

Nope, you can't deactivate PS3s except by the PS3 that you need to deactivate. I need to phone them up. Or just not waste my time with their service because there are plenty of other, friendlier companies more accomodating in taking my money.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If Apple is able to get rights to 5 devices at a time (may be 5 Macs and unlimited iOS devices) for music and movies purchased from iTunes, Sony should be able to get similar rights.

I don't think it has to do with rights, as you can register Bravia TVs and Sony tablets. It's just a stupid one PS3 limitation for films, although 5 PS3s for games (which has been dropped to 2 but the website still says 5). If I own a virtual copy of an SEN film, I can't go round a mate's and watch it on his PS3. At least not without first deactivating my PS3, activating my account on his, and then remembering to deactivate my account on his PS3 before returning home.

Evidently Sony's executives don't use their own products and services.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Nope, you can't deactivate PS3s except by the PS3 that you need to deactivate. I need to phone them up. Or just not waste my time with their service because there are plenty of other, friendlier companies more accomodating in taking my money.

https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/login.action

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I know. I tried it. You can too. Click on a PS3 and click the 'deactivate' button and you're told:
How to Deactivate a PlayStation®3 System


You can only deactivate your PlayStation®3 system from PlayStation®Network using your PS3™ system. You cannot deactivate it using a PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system or PC.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Weird. I've successfully deactivate stuff through the site in the past.

 

[patsu]

I don't think it has to do with rights, as you can register Bravia TVs and Sony tablets. It's just a stupid one PS3 limitation for films, although 5 PS3s for games (which has been dropped to 2 but the website still says 5). If I own a virtual copy of an SEN film, I can't go round a mate's and watch it on his PS3. At least not without first deactivating my PS3, activating my account on his, and then remembering to deactivate my account on his PS3 before returning home.

Evidently Sony's executives don't use their own products and services.

Without any added benefits, I agree the 1 video activation per PS3 limitation is stupid. I have a PS3 at home and in the office.

I have already abandoned PS Video Store and Video Unlimited. For new movies, I like Vudu. For old ones and TV shows, I recommend Hulu Plus or NetFlix. If you're an Amazon Prime members, then I guess Amazon Internet Video works too. We still rent physical Blu-ray discs too.