Specific to Japan, the Sony Game Control Mount GCM10 is being recalled after some worry about its quality. Sony is offering a free replacement for anybody who has purchased the mount which allows you to snap your Xperia phone on top of the PS4 Dualshock 4 controller for easy game streaming via Remote Play.
First, might I point out the irony of the VAIO being shown in the header image Sony is using? For those unfamiliar, Sony sold off their PC division in February of 2014. Now for those of you keeping up with the Sony retail saga, you’ll know that they’ll be shutting down their online store come August 28th. If you’re at all concerned about gift cards, warranties, and other related things, I’d advise you to look over our “25 Things to Know About Sony’s Online Retail Portal Closing” piece which covers most of the fine details of the closure.
With the move, you’ll still be able to purchase Sony products in the US, albeit from authorized Sony online dealers. After the jump, the extensive list of companies offering Sony products.
Just yesterday, we talked about Sony’s plans to close their online retail portal. A bit of a perplexing decision by Sony, one that leaves more questions then answers. Luckily we now have some more details to share with you and it’s not great. Just a few highlights from Sony:
Online backorders for which inventory is unavailable as of August 28, 2015 will be cancelled
and
After this date, we recommend you purchase an extended warranty plan from a Sony Authorized Dealer.
Speaking of those authorized dealers, if you’re looking to purchase Sony products
Please visit one of our Sony Authorized Dealers.
After the jump, 25 things you should know about Sony’s online retail portal closing.
So here is a bit of perplexing news out of left field. Sony has announced that they’ll be shutting down their online portal come August 28th. Yes, that means you’ll no longer be able to visit Sony.com and to get your fix of Sony products. That doesn’t mean the domain will disappear as that site exists to direct you to many of Sony’s other arms like Sony Pictures and PlayStation. It’s just that if you’ve been eying the say the new 4K 75X940C, which isn’t available at Best Buy, you’ll have to find other means of attaining it.
More details on this after the jump.
The Sony Q1 FY15 year numbers are out and while things are looking bad for the mobile arm of the company, PlayStation continues to do stellar numbers (up 12.1% to ¥288.6 billion or $2.33bn) and has actually surpassed mobile (down 16.3% to ¥280.5bn or $2.27bn). Fortunately for Sony, other divisions of the company, while small compared to rivals, are starting to be more profitable, including their insurance business.
Those details after the jump.
If you’re a regular reader of this site, you know that I stay away from flashy headlines. In fact, our headlines tend to be the most stale though hopefully the most truthful as well. With that, I wrote the above headline with some trepidation yet cannot find it more true.
The Sony Mobile Q1 FY15 results are in and things are not looking rosy for the mobile arm of Sony. In fact, you have to go back three years to see results this low. The following is from Sony
significant decrease in smartphone unit sales resulting from a strategic decision not to pursue scale in order to improve profitability
After the jump you’ll find the dreadful results, including a chart of Sony Mobile quarterly sales for the last 5 years.
You’ll likely often see me shaking my head or flat out disagreeing with the direction that Sony takes or lack of direction. When it’s not the the former, it tends to be about another missed earnings report or layoffs which unfortunately leads to very sober coverage of Sony without much room for celebration or excitement. Today’s news about Sony getting in the drone business, while odd at first, not only makes sense for company, but in fact might be a brilliant move.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising to know that Hiroki Totoki, the new Sony Mobile CEO and President, is the mastermind behind this vision, a person we’ve covered in great detail these past two weeks. After the jump, the full story behind Sony’s drone ambitions.
Sony Mobile CEO and President Hiroki Totoki has already discussed how his division will return to profitability in 2016 and that Sony has no plans to drop out of the mobile category. Compared to ten years ago, the term mobile has greatly changed where then, it only meant portables like laptops.
Since that time and more so in the last five years, our definition for mobile has once again changed where the term now generally reflects smartphones and tables. With Totoki talking about mobile, you can either take it that Sony is looking to stick to smartphones in hopes of making progress or that he’s talking about mobile as a whole which is once again starting to change.
Today’s mobile is no longer limited to just smartphones and instead encompasses other devices like wearables, something that Sony already offers quite a few of. Under Totoki, Sony is looking to aggressively expand their wearable products and in turn, ensure that they’re not left behind when a new hot product emerges. His statements after the jump.
In the past two years, there’s been a lot of talk about Sony’s exit from the mobile space. Despite having only purchased their stake from Ericsson in 2012 which finally allowed Sony to take their mobile operations in house and truly control their own destiny, the division has yet to be profitable and in fact has been losing momentum.
Famously, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said that no division within Sony is safe, referencing that that he’s not afraid to get rid of divisions that aren’t working and will not keep them around for legacy’s sake. This alone signaled to many that mobile and television could be the next to go.
Not so fast, says Hiroki Totoki, CEO and President of Sony Mobile. His statements after the jump.
In a move that caught investors by surprise, Sony has announced that it has raised nearly $4 billion in order to ramp up its sensor business. Sony was able to achieve the large sum by issuing new shares and bonds. In fact, this has been Sony’s first new share issue in 26 years and values at nearly a tenth of what the company is currently worth. In just the past year, Sony’s value has nearly doubled to $35 billion.
So what exactly will Sony do with the $4 billion in hand? Those details after the jump.
Earlier today, Sony announced First Flight, an internal crowdfunding platform that’s designed to finance projects from internal Sony employees. Think Indiegogo or Kickstarter but just for internal projects that will allow Sony employees to crowd fund their projects. The only slight twist or addition is that First Flight will also let backers pre-order and buy new devices developed by Sony workers.
Sony has announced a new initiative dubbed ‘Green Management 2020’ that will take effect from fiscal year 2016 through 2020. Under this new plan, Sony hopes to reduce its carbon footprint and the amount of power that its devices utilize. By decade’s end, Sony plans to have those devices be 30% more efficient. But that’s not all; Sony even has greater ambitions which would ultimately see the company have a “zero environmental footprint” throughout all stages of its product lifecycles and business.
Check out Sony’s Green Management 2020 vision details after the break.
It’s been obvious for some time that Sony sees 4K as part of their path towards recovery and growth. The new video format, which is here to replace HD (which in turn replaced SD), is already being offered in a variety of form factors from Sony. In fact, Sony is one of the few companies, if not the only one, that gives you options to not only record in 4K, be it with their Handycam FDR-AX100 which is priced at just $1,000, but consume it as well via their 4K televisions. Heck, even Sony’s smartphones now can capture in 4K. Ultimately, in order for Sony’s 4K vision to be successful, they need to offer a range of products that are compelling to professionals and consumers.
All the products I mentioned above are primarily targeted at consumers with price tags that are fairly affordable. Just two years ago at CES 2014, Sony announced the first consumer 4K camcorder which they dubbed “4K for 2K,” referencing the price which at the time seemed extremely low and now this year, we already have a model for half the price. The other part of this equation is for professionals. Sony Pictures is already using the format in a variety of their movies and shows like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Breaking Bad, and Powers. But in order for 4K to become ubitiquous, Sony is looking to other markets as well to expand their 4K vision.
Who would have thought that a single chart (which can be seen above) would so elegantly paint a portrait on why Sony continues to shy away from any meaningful initiative in the US and why the company is struggling so much? While territories like China and India are continuing to grow and in turn, are becoming very important for tech companies, they’ve traditionally been a target for more entry-level products which bring in far less profits.
The US has been a haven for companies to bring premium products and as a nation that prides itself on consumption, it provides the perfect balance of income, population, and infrastructure to support cutting edge products. Unfortunately for Sony, the US is their smallest territory in sales.
We’ve already talked fairly extensively about why Sony is renaming the Walkman app to Music, a far simpler naming scheme. For anyone purchasing a new Sony device like the Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia Z4, Xperia A4, or Xperia M4 Aqua, the new naming scheme will be in place from day one. All Sony devices shipping with Android 5.0 or upgraded to Android 5.0 will have the app renamed as part of the process. For those with older devices that won’t be receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop, or have yet to receive the new OS, you’ll soon see the Walkman app renamed after a new update is released.
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