Sony on the ropes after revising losses UP to $1.3 BEEELLION

Sony have made some of the best gear I've ever bought, but it seems that the price squeeze put on them by other actors in the electronics market is finally doing them in. I certainly don't want them to disappear.

Sign o' the times

People used to be happy to pay a premium for Sony kit, now they dont see the point. Other manufacurer's kit is just as cool (sometimes cooler) and cheaper. Classic example of 'laurel resting' for a big company. Pity.

Quality hardware...but where's the rest?

So sad to see...I agree that the media arm strangled Sony so much over the past few decades, forcing proprietary formats at every juncture. That's one problem.

The other problem is that at their heart Sony are a premium engineering company, their hardware is incredible...but other equipment is sadly 'good enough' now. iPhones are, comparatively, pretty poor media players (the a/d chips and other circuitry isn't really that good), compared to, for example, the X-Series Walkman I had a few years ago. by comparison, the iKit sounds abysmal. Thing is, no one cares anymore, it's all about overall value and software over simply good quality hardware and you can only really tell the quality in A-B tests. Hardly something to shift units (well it worked for me but I am, apparently, odd).

Oh well, I'll always have fond memories of the top-notch Walkman I saved up for as a teenager!

The Purge

Instead of purging the upper echelon that is management and the decision makers they will probably lay off a bunch of workers and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Let's hope they make the right choices from here on out and turn this thing around. I'm seriously considering the PS4 for my next console but not if the company goes tits up.

Bah!

I think you'll find after properly reading the spreadsheet that the losses are in fact down to illegal music downloading, just like in previous years.

cautionary tale

Samsung are you listening? It may be tempting to buy a media studio and get in on the content creation pie. If you do 15 years from now tops people will be laughing at your slide into irrelevance.

Schizophrenic company

One side used to make fantastic innovative and high quality electronic consumer goods. Which were excellent at copying things. Sounds onto tape. Tape into sound. TV signals into pictures.

The other side tried to make a business out of media and copyright and wanted to stop the other side of the business making it easy to copy content easily or perfectly.

The solution - split Sony into 2 companies where one side isn't trying to sabotage the other.

how the mighty have fallen

Old Sony:

Trinitron tubes - best in the biz, everybody wanted one, both for TVs and computer monitors

Walkman - pioneering entry into miniaturization and using surface mount in consumer products, when everything else was big and clunky...they really led the consumer miniaturization trend

Video - top notch consumer and semi-pro camcorders

Recent Sony -

Memory sticks - offered nothing over competing technologies except lock in and a higher price

Music CDs - with a complementary rootkit installer included!

Free software add-ons - another rootkit delivery vehicle (in some free to download Spore game tool)

Securom - worlds worst game CD copy protection scheme; main benefit was making sure my kids legally purchased games would no longer work after any hardware or OS upgrades, costing too much of my time to try to make them happy again

Water resistant cameras, tablets - great idea, except when they aren't really water resistant, oops

Is it any wonder why they're doing so poorly?

At least they still know how to make decent ear buds and headphones...

Not really surprising.

Sony are their own worst enemy.

They prioritize DRM above customer satisfaction.

They destroyed their own invention - mini disc - with DRM.

They installed root-kits on their customers machines because of DRM.

They cannot be trusted because of DRM.

I have been totally boycotting Sony since the disappointment and aggravation i got from their NetMD.

It may already be too late - but if it is not, they need to forget DRM and start prioritizing their customers.

What's really hurt Sony over the years...

All their proprietary connectors/cables and flash cards. If only they had adopted a more consumer friendly open standards policy 10 years ago they'd still be the Sony of today. Not Samsung. Their ATRAC format was also a killer bust.

Pioneering new optical standards is one thing but simple connectivity, flash cards and loathsome DRM is another.