Stringer: PlayStation 3 is a key driver of Sony's future growth

[B3D News]

Associated Press reports what Howard Stringer, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony, said to his shareholders at the annual meeting. During his speech, Stringer made clear that his ambition for the company has now shifted from “recovery to profitable growth.


Read the full news item

 

[Nesh]

Well things will be starting to change perhaps and they will be more willingfull for price drops

 

[patsu]

Times on Howard Stringer and Kaz Hirai

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1973376.ece

 

[Cheezdoodles]

playstation

playstation3 is pretty much the only driver of sony's future growth. Not really news.

 

[ninzel]

"Stringer: PlayStation 3 is a key driver of Sony's future growth"

Well then they had better get it out of first gear. :smile:

 

[one]

playstation3 is pretty much the only driver of sony's future growth. Not really news.

Why do you think so when all the other divisions are successfully making money now?

 

[Nesh]

playstation3 is pretty much the only driver of sony's future growth. Not really news.

Ahm.....again no

 

[Skrying]

Why do you think so when all the other divisions are successfully making money now?

I don't exactly match "growth" with making money, growth eventually leads to making money but its first goal is opening up to others markets... at least that's what I thought personally. In that sense I feel the PS3 is Sony's only driver. I don't pay much attention to what all Sony does but besides Blu-Ray (which PS3 makes a big push for) and the PS3 I don't see them really heavily trying to lean into other markets. I see the PS3 as a attempt at reaching into the total media picture in more of a combining sense, being the sole provider in games, TV, music, etc. This is why I feel the PS3 having good sales is far more important than simply for Sony's gaming division. A company this large must spread out or it must face the wrath of its competitors as they do so.

 

[patsu]

If you read the first article, Howard implied that they intend to ride the young digital video wave (although they missed the digital music wave). PS3 is clearly a key pillar, but there are other Sony devices and businesses that may matter as much in this area (e.g. Bravia, PSP, professional video authoring, movies, etc.).

Sony is a large corporation. There are many interesting projects within. I know of one (because they are talking to some external parties)... regarding a new form of TV programs (combining Internet).

In addition, it is not reasonable to expect Sony to divulge their plans in the public. It would be like asking Steve Jobs what he wants to roll out next.

On a related note, others (including Sony) are also looking into augmented reality, which some believe would drive the next Internet revolution. They (SCE, Sony Pictures, ...) seem to have dabbled in software and Internet services too. So we may see more happenings there over the next few years.

Looking from yet another perspective, Asia is booming (e.g., China, Thailand, Vietnam). There is no reason why Sony can't position themselves (like many major brands) to drive their business to new heights. The world is full of opportunities and surprises.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Why do you think so when all the other divisions are successfully making money now?

Growth and making money is far from the same thing. While other divisions may become slightly profitable, unless they suddenly start selling a lot more tv's for the same price, they aren't gonna experience much growth. Sony needs something new to experience significant growth. A new walkman, get it?

Realistically speaking, PS3 and bluray is pretty much the only thing that can give them a lot of growth right now, because they are "make it or brake it" items, if you win. you win big, and because the competition is small. That or new stuff they have been cooking up in the labs.

Your not suddenly going to sell a billion tv's when there is 1000 companies that makes roughly as good tv's as you do, for the same (and often lower) price.

Ahm.....again no

Wow, amazing argument. Wanna try actually making one? And don't give me any crap PR statements.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Growth and making money is far from the same thing. While other divisions may become slightly profitable, unless they suddenly start selling a lot more tv's for the same price, they aren't gonna experience much growth. Sony needs something new to experience significant growth. A new walkman, get it?

Realistically speaking, PS3 and bluray is pretty much the only thing that can give them a lot of growth right now.

Considering the success of PS1 and PS2, how much growth is it realistic to expect in the gaming sector? They'd need to reach far wider than the widest-reaching consoles of all time. The likely way to achieve that is to offer alternative services beyond gaming, and in that, PS3 doesn't need to be the only platform Sony can rely on. eg. With content delivery, a software platform that reaches PC and out-competes iTunes will get Sony more growth than anything. As for BluRay, how much growth can that get Sony beyond DVD? It's a replacement format, which means the market can surely only be as big. People stop buying DVD as they've all got it, so instead sell them an alternative. But you can only sell as many as there are households to buy, which is all of them regards DVD. Now if Sony had the monopoly on BRD, then it'd be a growth area. Rather than having a share of the DVD market, they'd own the entirety of the BRD market. However they don't have the monopoly. I don't even think they get the largest share of the licensing fees.

Growth comes on the whole from existing markets and just competing well in them. Samsung got to be huge without a Walkman or PlayStation. They got there on the strength of their products competing. If Sony produce the same CE goods as everyone else, but outcompete their rivals, they'll experience corporate growth.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I'm sorry shifty, are you under the impression that Sony owned DVD? Sony has no royalities on DVD. They are the company that are getting the most royalities with Bluray, in the top tier atleast. Bluray doing well = growth for sony.

As for BluRay, how much growth can that get Sony beyond DVD? It's a replacement format, which means the market can surely only be as big.

ROFL.

They got there on the strength of their products competing. If Sony produce the same CE goods as everyone else, but outcompete their rivals, they'll experience corporate growth.

Im sorry, i didn't ask for a cute definition of what growth is. Im perfectly aware of what it is. I also said that realistically, your not gonna experience significant growth on a lot of the electronics, like TV's, because the competition is so huge, and the difference in quality is minimal.

Sony has been getting killed in the electronics business for a decade. While they are profitable now, they still have tiny markedshares compared to what they had, its completely unrealistic to believe that they will suddenly start making hoops of money from it and gain marketshare. Samsung is not going to stop making good tv's.

 

[Arwin]

I'm sorry shifty, are you under the impression that Sony owned DVD? Sony has no royalities on DVD.

How about mpeg2, smartass?

 

[Cheezdoodles]

They share MPEG2 royalities with 20 other companies. These 20 other companies are also the largest makers of DVDs. I'm pretty sure whatever they get from MPEG2 licenses, the profits they can make with bluray can be much more.

 

[Nesh]

Wow, amazing argument. Wanna try actually making one? And don't give me any crap PR statements.

Its still not as "amazing" as your arguments. Which are the typical biased based on vague assumption ones. In other words, I am still waiting for a clear factual argument from you to be able to discuss anything.

 

[one]

Sony has no royalities on DVD.

There are 2 major patent pools for DVD, they are 6C (Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita/Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Time Warner) and 3C (Philips Electronics, Pioneer, Sony).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Im sorry, i didn't ask for a cute definition of what growth is. Im perfectly aware of what it is. I also said that realistically, your not gonna experience significant growth on a lot of the electronics, like TV's, because the competition is so huge, and the difference in quality is minimal.

Tell that to Samsung.

Sony has been getting killed in the electronics business for a decade. While they are profitable now, they still have tiny markedshares compared to what they had, its completely unrealistic to believe that they will suddenly start making hoops of money from it and gain marketshare. Samsung is not going to stop making good tv's.

Right. So the only reason Sony managed to gain significant TV share from Samsung over the past few years because Samsung did stop making good TVs? Now Samsung have started again, Sony won't be able to compete. It's not like advertising, or marketting, or refined products could do Sony any good. They're stuck with the current percentage of TVs full-stop for the next 5 to 10 years. Absolutely nothing they can do about it. They can't introduce a rich media download service to PCs either. And their share of portable media players is capped exactly at it's current rate because no matter what new models and devices they might introduce, the market is unshakably dvided into it's current market share. If Sony are on 15% of MP3 players sold now, they'll never be able to improve that, because...well, just because. Open competition and all that. Everyone else with have better and/or cheaper products and Sony will never be able to address that. Same with digital cameras where Sony have been seeing a boom. Suddenly all that growth is going to stop. Their only hope is from PS3, to significantly outdo PS1 and PS2 in terms of revenue, presumably by selling more consoles, more games, and notably media downloads - these same downloads that Sony won't be able to sell to PC owners of course because of the competition.

It all makes sense now.

 

[Crossbar]

I think there is a chance that the PS3 will be the Trojan horse that will help building the blu-ray market and the blu-ray films and the PS3 games through HDMI 1.3 will help building the market for hi-end and hi-margin TV-sets llike these:

NEW YORK, June 6, 2007 – Sony today introduced nine new BRAVIA® flat-panel LCD high-definition televisions with advanced features.

The new models all feature 1920 x 1080 full high-definition resolution, 10-bit panels and, in select models, Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate technology, as well as x.v.Color™ capability. Encompassing the XBR5, XBR4 and W series, they come in screen sizes of 52, 46 and 40 inches (measured diagonally).

....

The full HD 1080p models feature Live Color Creation™ technology with WCG-CCFL backlight and 10-bit processing with a 10-bit panel, which has the capability to deliver 64 times the level of color expression than 8-bit panels. The result is a smoother transition between colors and more natural, accurate reproduction of subtle color changes.

Enhancing image quality further is the adoption of the new industry color standard for video, xvYCC, also referred to as x.v.Color™ technology. This standard expands the potential color data range of video by about 1.8 times resulting in the display of more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye can actually see with supporting video sources. This technology is a perfect complement to Sony’s HD camcorder models, which capture color range beyond what broadcasters currently deliver.

Unfortunately, not all today’s video content sources match the razor sharp resolution and rich colors available on a Blu-ray disc or a high-definition broadcast. Helping to enhance content that is not perfect, Sony’s BRAVIA Engine™ EX full digital video processing system with Digital Reality Creation-Multifunction v1.0 (DRC-MF v1.0) technology delivers an exceptional picture by up converting common standard definition signals like DVDs and non-HD broadcasts to better match the television’s capabilities.

When high-definition signals are available, however, the sets feature 1080p input capability via HDMI, component, and PC inputs (with supporting PC graphics cards) for an outstanding picture. Additionally, the HD component and HDMI inputs are compatible with both 1080/60p and 1080/24p sources (24p True Cinema).

....

Both XBR model lines offer Sony’s Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate. The Motionflow technology creates 60 unique frames between each of the existing 60 frames, doubling the frames displayed per second in real-time, further improving images for fast action sports and other programming. Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate effectively eliminates motion artifacts (“judder”) while watching content filmed at 24 frames-per-second. This means with all of your existing DVDs or broadcast movies and prime-time TV series, you can enjoy all the detail even with moving objects.

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_r...on/flat_panel_displays/lcd/release/30448.html

I think Stringer knows his shit.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think there is a chance that the PS3 will be the Trojan horse that will help building the blu-ray market and the blu-ray films...

Definitely. That's why Stringer said PS3 was a key driver of future growth. It's (according to Sony's plan) going to help establish the larger BRD market, and probably be a spring-board for an extensive content delivery service. That doesn't make PS3 the only means in the whole of Sony that can increase their profits though!

 

[Moonblade]

Definitely. That's why Stringer said PS3 was a key driver of future growth. It's (according to Sony's plan) going to help establish the larger BRD market, and probably be a spring-board for an extensive content delivery service. That doesn't make PS3 the only means in the whole of Sony that can increase their profits though!

True. The PS3 is but one of the 3 HD pillars (PS3, HD TV's, Blu-ray). They drive each other ... like this: