Sony nosedives into $2.8bn loss as Hirai grabs controls Sony's new CEO will have his hands full at the helm of the loss-making Japanese firm - the entertainment megacorp announced today that its net loss in the quarter ending in December was 159 billion yen ($2bn) and it has slashed its full-year forecast to a loss of 220 billion yen ($2.8bn). Sony, which announced just yesterday …
I still hear the fanboys saying well Xbox has still been out for a year longer what with the PS3 still in third place 5 years on. I loathe M$ almost as much as Sony and have a PS3 but it will probably be the last Sony product I ever purchase. It no coincidence that the last company to think DRM is a long term solution is floundering.
I've heard of this PS3 thing and I've heard rumors that people actually do use them. I have seen them in many homes. But I have never heard of anyone actually playing anything for any extended period on them.
Seriously though. Sony screwed up on a galactic scale by selling a game system that was sold based on awesome graphics but at obscene cost to the gamer. Most money on game systems are made from the licensing terms for the discs. The problem is, when the discs cost as much as they do, people will head to the used games rack first. In fact, unless they're hardcore and have to have the latest games at any cost, PS3 games are just too damn expensive for the masses. They are past the price of impulse shopping. With PS2, Sony made tons of money because games actually were cheap enough that people would say "Hmm... I'll buy this to try it".
I have owned Sony computers in the past, they were sexy... a major pain in the ass regarding maintenance, but sexy. I own a Sony 46" LCD which I use when I'm not using my projector. And I love it. I have a Playstation 2 somewhere, but I think we played it for 50 hours and went back to PC and Wii. Had a Sony Ericsson phone for a few months once, but frankly, it just wasn't good enough.
Unless Sony figures out that Playstation is lame and instead makes something like sound bars with built in gaming, that whole segment will go the way of the dodo for them. As for phones, well, I think they're pretty screwed unless they find a way to beat Apple and Microsoft at that game.
I hope you don't watch Britain's Got Talent or The Bill then. I hope you don't read books published by the Random House group or subscribe to National Geographic Deutschland. I hope you don't listen to Radio Luxembourg.
Just a tiny selection of things brought to you by Bertelsmann, the other, and equal partner in the Sony BMG 'Rootkit fiasco'.
This is what happens when a once-great engineering company diversifies away from its engineering roots to dabble in media, entertainment and games, and to end up by being run by accountants instead of engineers.
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, Sony's co-founders, must be rotating in their graves.
Once this company had integrity, and it made wonderful products with great engineering integrity. My 40-year old hi-fi amp was made by Sony and it's still in perfect condition and performs flawlessly. It came with impeccable operational manuals and the service manual is a delight to behold (even though I've never needed it).
40 years ago, Sony was synonymous with quality and all its products reflected this obsession with performance and quality, today it's a carpetbagger of a company that's overplayed its hand once too often.
Sad really.
Years ago
if you wanted quality a radio one bought Sony,
if you wanted quality a Hi-Fi one bought Sony,
if you wanted quality a T.V. one bought Sony,
if you wanted quality a monitor one bought Sony,
etc.
Sony products were not cheap, buy it was worth paying the extra for the quality.
I still remember with great fondness my Walkman WM-D6C Pro. A truly great product, it was heavy and ate batteries, and it sounded wonderful.
What did Sony make afterwards?
The Mini-Disc, a potentially very fine format for its day limited by excessive copy protection.
Today I can not think a product category where I would want to buy a Sony product.
Realy realy sad.
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