Sony's incoming CEO: "Holy S***. Now What?"

[hanselthecaretaker]

"I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not," he said in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal in January, talking about difficulties in fixing the electronics business. "It's one issue after another. I feel like 'Holy s—, now what?'"

More here.


If only they had Microsoft's marketing prowess they'd probably be sittin a lot better.

 

[calveless wonder]

that's what happens when you have a Brit trying to lead a japanese company...

glad they went back to their roots

 

[bakemeacookie]

confusing. their movie studio is making profits hand over first. I assume the same thing with ps3 and their broadcast equipment business. In the TV world - everything is Sony.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

confusing. their movie studio is making profits hand over first. I assume the same thing with ps3 and their broadcast equipment business. In the TV world - everything is Sony.

I think they're losing a lot of money in making tv's, and trying to do/invest in too many other things instead of focusing on a few.

 

[calveless wonder]

confusing. their movie studio is making profits hand over first. I assume the same thing with ps3 and their broadcast equipment business. In the TV world - everything is Sony.

Not confusing. that's such a small segment of sony as a conglomerate. They have a billion and one divisions. i know because my Dad worked for them for 30+ years as an executive.

Before the internet age they had incredible branding power in nearly everything they made. Walkmans, TVs, surround sound, headphones, remote controls etc. They were more expensive than most brands but people always bought their goods because they were always associated with quality.

When the internet age came along, it allowed more competitors and especially niche competitors to capture their market share. cheaper alternatives with comparable quality...maybe not as good but somewhat close and at a much lower pricepoint. Sony was spread so thin that it allowed these niche companies to focus on their one and only product line. They didn't really adapt quick enough and had some antiquated practices.

They used to be dominant in the headphone market but now companies like skullcandy have taken their market share.Same with TVs..they used to be the gold standard. Now you have companies like LG and vizio that produce similar quality for much cheaper. same with car audio, computers etc. they were a late entry into the computer market, so that's an exception.

but they also relied heavily on the walkman and the discman for many years, and once the ipod came into existence that market disintegrated for them

 

[calveless wonder]

"I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not," he said in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal in January, talking about difficulties in fixing the electronics business. "It's one issue after another. I feel like 'Holy s—, now what?'"

More here.


If only they had Microsoft's marketing prowess they'd probably be sittin a lot better.

microsoft only deals with software(with the exception of the xbox consoles), so that's a completely irrelevant point. and their xbox division isn't even really profitable in the grand scheme of Microsoft. if i recall, you posted an article not too long ago about the insane amount of money they were losing and how some shareholders wanted them to phase out that division.

There are very few powerhouse electronic conglomerates anymore that can grow. it's the evolution of the industry that created that, not really the companies.. Sony's so deep rooted in so many things that it's hard to just fold up shop and say "Ok, we'll just focus on these few things". littel by little they have to allocate resources into what's profitable for them, but they can't just disintegrate a large portion of their product line.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

microsoft only deals with software(with the exception of the xbox consoles), so that's a completely irrelevant point. and their xbox division isn't even really profitable in the grand scheme of Microsoft. if i recall, you posted an article not too long ago about the insane amount of money they were losing and how some shareholders wanted them to phase out that division.

There are very few powerhouse electronic conglomerates anymore that can grow. it's the evolution of the industry that created that, not really the companies.. Sony's so deep rooted in so many things that it's hard to just fold up shop and say "Ok, we'll just focus on these few things". littel by little they have to allocate resources into what's profitable for them, but they can't just disintegrate a large portion of their product line.

Look at how many people (myself included) bought a 360 even in the face of the most ridiculous rate of hardware failure the industry has ever seen...yet it's still the most popular among actual gamers in NA territories. Hell some people are on their 5th/6th consoles since the generation started. How many here would put up with that if the PS3 had that many hardware problems? The only thing that's keeping MS in the black is the Xbox Live community, which was by far their biggest advantage to being first this gen. Although I'm sure their making money off software and hardware by this point.

 

[EnderJE]

Look at how many people (myself included) bought a 360 even in the face of the most ridiculous rate of hardware failure the industry has ever seen...yet it's still the most popular among actual gamers in NA territories. Hell some people are on their 5th/6th consoles since the generation started. How many here would put up with that if the PS3 had that many hardware problems? The only thing that's keeping MS in the black is the Xbox Live community, which was by far their biggest advantage to being first this gen. Although I'm sure their making money off software and hardware by this point.

Yeah, but what does M$ have other the XBox, Office, and Windows 7?

 

[bakemeacookie]

Yeah, but what does M$ have other the XBox, Office, and Windows 7?

corporate
america.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

corporate
america.

This. Mainstream consumerism may increasingly be Apple territory (even though they're still only 15% of the marketshare if that), but Windows still also makes up the fiber of American business, from ma&pa shops all the way up to the Pentagon.