Sony Corp.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer On Music, Apple

by Sohrab Osati | May 24, 2009 | 12 comments

Recently, Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer sat down with Nikkei Electronics Asia and pledged that Sony would adopt more open standard policy in the future and said,

“If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple”

in the music market. Its been noted that Apple is never new to any market, like the iPod or the iPhone but that they evaluate the market and come in with something simple and elegant. Sony was the king of music players with the Walkman which used the open format of Tapes and even with CD Players, Sony would use, a CD and they were still king. But when the MP3 era began, Sony would make its own specific plays with Mini Disc Players and ATRAC format for their players, which was used with Sony’s Connect Player and SonicStage. The reason neither scenario worked for Sony was that although Mini Disc Players were great and to this day, hold their own, it was something that Sony made and nobody else offered and so this left it to Sony to battle every other brand and format. That’s where ATRAC comes in. Higher quality then MP3 yet more compressed but again, Sony kept the format to themselves and everybody began to adopt MP3 while Sony pushed hard for ATRAC. The train was already missed.

Sony Is 53 Years Old

by Sohrab Osati | May 21, 2009 | 15 comments

Sony is now officially 53 years old and what a 53 years its been. Masaru Ibuka started Sony, humbly, in post-war Japan above a department store. Their opening charter warned, “We must avoid problems which befall large corporations.” Sony then, which was known as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company was quoted as saying should “create and introduce technologies which large corporations cannot match” and that the company was founded” and that the company was founded “to establish of an ideal factory that stresses a spirit of freedom and open-mindedness, and where engineers with sincere motivation can exercise their technological skills to the highest level…the organization would bring untold pleasure and tremendous results, regardless of the meagerness of its facilities or the limited number of employees.”

Well, it seems like somewhere down the line, I would say, in the early 2000’s, the vision was lost and Sony fell behind and companies like Apple and Microsoft and Samsung all took aim and gained grounds. With Apple with their iPhone and iPods dismantelling the Walkman and making the Sony Ericsson line irrelevant. Then, Samsung has taken a hard aim at Sony and their television and home electronics lineup. From there, the obvious Playstation vs Xbox battle with Microsoft and of course, smaller fights with the Sony eReader vs the Amazon Kindle and others. But all is not doom and gloom. , Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s first foreign CEO, was recently quoted as saying that, “We can no longer say that we’re right and our customers are wrong. We can’t build only what we want to build.” Although Sony has a lot of problems, I believe they have the capability with proper leadership to not only fend of competition, but gain back now lost ground. More on that in our next segment.

Sony Not Discontinuing Rolly in the US

by Sohrab Osati | May 20, 2009 | 27 comments

A few websites ran a story that Sony was finally realizing that the Rolly makes no sense and was going to discontinue it. We couldnt have been any happier to hear this story as we had talked about this many times before. But it seems like Engadget, decided to contact Sony directly in which case they replied,”There is no truth to these reports at this time.” So for those 7 Rolly owners….yay!

Sony Shows Its Heart (pt2)

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 21, 2009 | 10 comments

Even more hearts to go around from the people of Sony. Check out this second add from them. For Europe of course only.

Sony Shows Its Heart

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 15, 2009 | 3 comments

For fans of Football (soccer), Sony has a new add just for you. For fans of the human heart, Sony also has something for you. And for us tech junkies, Sony wanted us to know that it took parts from its Bravias, Walkmen and VAIO to create this.

PS3 Firmware 2.7 is Live

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 2, 2009 | 28 comments

I just turned on my PS3 and firmware 2.7 is indeed live. Some of the key features are:

Chat rooms with up to 16 people where you can have live chats while playing a game.
File sending has been bumped from 1mb to 3mb.
You can now backup your downloaded movies on an external hard drive and delete them from your main system and transfer them.

So update away!

Sony Introduces New W-Series With a Slew Of New Features

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 1, 2009 | 7 comments

Just in time for Spring, Sony has announced the new 1080p W-Series (52-inch KDL-52W5100, 46-inch KDL-46W5100 or 40-inch KDL-40W5100), which like their bigger sisters, the XBR9 and Bravia Z5100, sport not only an ethernet jack which will allow for updates, but also have access to Yahoo! Widgets like news and weather. From there on, these units will also have access to Sony Pictures content, Amazon Video on Demand and YouTube. Of course, one could presumibly see Netflix and Blockbuster Streaming come via an update, but that seems doubtful. Other new features to the W Series is Sony’s Motionflow 120Hz technology, DLNA compatibility, a USB port for loading up external media, BRAVIA Sync (HDMI-CEC), four HDMI inputs and the Xross Media Bar (XMB) interface.

Sony has set a goal of having most of their equipment connect to the web by 2011 and we see this in their new Bravia series, as well as their Cybershot G3. With that in mind, Sony can help push their content and I cant help but think, that Sony needs to have PSN (PlayStation Network) part of this strategy somehow. They are already offering PS3 and PSP users with loads of content. Why not offer the Bravia users access to the same Movies and Rentals, if they already plan on giving them Sony Pictures content.

Hit the MagicGate for a full press release.

MagicGate!

PS2 Drops To $99

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 31, 2009 | 4 comments

Im not gonna lie, I was a little antsy getting out of bed today because I was extremely excited for what Sony might have set aside for todays big announcement, centered around the PlayStation family. I made my coffee (Starbucks is the way to make it), cut my Banana into pieces, made some toast and jumped in front of my computer. And the now 9 year old PS2 is!……$99! YAY!!!!!!!!!….except the entire planet knew this yesterday… So heres to hoping more news comes out today.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, $99 is indeed a much needed life savor to the PS2 and while many of us have moved away from the PS2 years ago, trend shows that the now 9 year old unit still sells thousands a week and this just makes it more affordable for the consumer. Plus, with the world wide recession, more and more are turning to cheaper, home alternative forms of entertainment and the PS2 can cover that segment, offering a huge library of games, a DVD/CD player, free online play. Plus, with a $99 price point, there is still a large part of the consumer segment that Sony can penetrate and more so, other countries Sony can reach for like India and Russia who are just now emerging on the gaming world radar. So while for us, it might not be anything to get excited over, from a corporate strategic standpoint, it makes perfect sense.

Two New Sony Profile 2.0 Blu-rays Players (BDP-S360 and BDP-S560)

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 31, 2009 | 11 comments

Sony is going full steam ahead with it’s two new profile 2.0 Blu-rays players. Starting at $300, the BDP-S360 comes with an Ethernet connection (fore BD Live and firmware updates). Also, this unit is fully DLNA-ready (allows for the streaming of photos from your PC), upscales your DVD to 1080p (although that dosent make it look like Blu-ray), bitstreams your audio via HDMI. Speaking of audio, the unit supports both Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master and even even allows you to hookup USB drives to it to play music from. The higher model (BDP-S560, pictured) supports all the same features and adds WiFi to the mix for one less cord in your life.

Hit the MagicGate for a full shot of the BDP-S360 and BDP-S560.

MagicGate!

Two New Photo Printers (DPP-FP97 and DPP-FP67) From Sony

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 30, 2009 | 30 comments

Sony has released two new photo printers for your digital cameras so you can finally just stop looking at them on their 3inch screen. The lower model (DPP-FP67) will run you $120 which can make a 4 x 6 print in roughly 50 seconds. The higher end sister unit (DPP-FP97 above and to the right) which runs at $200 also supports HDMI out and a 3.5inch LCD screen. Nice thing and smart move on Sonys part is that these units aren’t limited to Sonys Memory Stick, but also support SD,SDHC, MCC and xD, meaning a much larger part of the market can make use of these printers and not just those who own Sonys Cybershots or other Memory Stick devices cameras (yes, Samsung even used them).

Sony Brings Sexy Back With New iPod Dock

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 27, 2009 | 39 comments

Leaked images of the new Sony CMT-Z100iR mini-sound system show us Sonys new iPod dock with CD player and USB port with a 20w speaker. Other aspects of this device that complement the iPod Touch and iPhone are a touch panel (and with roadmap 3.0, the iPhone/iPod Touch can control their settings via itself, using it’s own screen for more menu options). Other features are said to be a 3.5mm Audio-in jack, bass/treble adjustment and AM/FM radio. Sense this is a leaked image, there is no firm release date but the price is rumored to range from $150-$250 but I cannot imagine it being anything less then $200. The only feature that I hope this guy features is shielded speakers because any iPhone user knows the pain of unshielded speakers.

[Via SonyInsider]

Head of Sony Ericsson Steps Down

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 26, 2009 | 23 comments

It seems that Najmi Jarwala, President of Sony Ericsson USA and Head of Region North America (comprising the US and Canada markets) (thanks engadget) has decided to to “peruse other career opportunities” out side of Sony Ericesson. This all comes after many rumors of Sony and Ericesson breaking their long time partnership and even more recently, having a drop of 50% in Q1 sales. The person to be taking over in the mean time is Anders Runevad (pictured), Executive VP and Head of Global Sales & Marketing. But of course, the problem at Sony Ericesson isn’t something that any one person can shift and has to do with the entire platform and partnership of Sony Ericsson. Here is to hoping that their Android based handsets come out sooner, then later. Maybe that long rumored PSP phone might change things up too, although, i’d much rather see them take their time with that device, then just slapping the PS brand on something (looks at Walkman).

[Via Mobileburn]

Sony Reader Gains 500,000 eBooks, Thanks To Google

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 25, 2009 | 7 comments

Because of Google, the Sony Reader will soon be gaining an additional 500,000 eBooks for free. The partnership of Sony and Google is basically giving Sony Reader owners the capability to access Google Book, where Google takes it upon themselves to scan any public domain book and offer it free to it’s partners and users. With this much content, this puts Sonys Reader well ahead of the Kindle from Amazon and free content never hurt anybody.

[Via NYT]

Sony Pulls an Opposite of AIG, Cuts Bonuses

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 23, 2009 | 756 comments

It’s no secret that Sony has been hurting as of late. They posted a first time loss last quarter. Their PlayStation division is still bleeding and Sony Ericsson just reported a 50% sales drop from a year ago. Times are tough indeed. To counter the recession and poor performing divisions, Sony in the past few months has cut thousands of jobs and closed plants. But to further their agenda, Sony is announcing that they will be freezing worker salaries for the financial year starting next month. Reuters notes, “Sony normally raises employee pay annually based on their role and performance, rather than seniority like many other Japanese companies, and this latest move follows some pay cuts to many of the very same affected workers, who’ve recently seen their wages drop by 10 to 20%.” As Engadget notes, other Japanese companies like Toshiba, NEX and Hitachi are planning similar moves, but none of the companies seem to be ready to announce such measures just yet. I guess it’s better to have your salary cut then to be fired right? Though times indeed, worse when you sell premium equipment.

Kotaku Paid By Microsoft

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 20, 2009 | 2 comments

A title like that is something that grabs the attention of people and many will assume that it means, Microsoft pays off Kotaku to write pro posts while bashing their competition. Now sure, I can go write a fairly anti Microsoft and Kotaku post and just briefly mention the fact that by paid off, I could simply have meant the fact that Microsoft puts up paid advertisement on Kotaku, but if you run a site that gets thousands and thousands of hits per day, the damage would have been done by the deceitful article headline.

That seems to be the problem with Kotaku. I’m really at the end of the day not sure if its the fact that they are indeed paid by Microsoft, poor journalist, a site thats lacking for more attention or personal biast but I’ll let you be the judge of it. As of today, out of the 10 posts that were mentioned on their websites main page(and I’ve stated this before, I hate to cover gaming content because there are so many websites that do it, but I couldn’t help but write something about this), 4 of these titles read as “Lost & Damned “Outsells Killzone 2”, Gives Us Sales Ballpark”. “So, How Many People Have Used PlayStation Home?”, “Sony Want Profits, Not Market Share” and “Publishers Unhappy With PlayStation Network Bandwidth Fees”. Of course, one would maybe say that its been a bad news day for Sony and all companies have ups and downs but in fact, its been a no news day. Better yet, this is not an anomaly, but how Kotaku tends to write on a daily bases, because after looking at those headlines, if I were Sony, i’d start to question myself too.

But to truly get to the heart of this matter, we need to look deeper into these headlines to see the angle that Kotaku comes from. In the article titled “Lost & Damned “Outsells Killzone 2”, Gives Us Sales Ballpark”, it seems very clear that this is aimed at slandering Sonys big gun for the PS3, Killzone 2. Now 60% of this article is a quote from Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, stating that that GTA4 expansion is “the most successful game addon content we’ve ever launched” – saying “If that content was sold at retail, it would be one of the best sellers across all platforms. It would have outsold Killzone 2”. So with a read, this leads to the assumption that wow, Microsoft is indeed holding it’s own against the big launch of Sony and that maybe Killzone 2 didn’t deliver what it was intending on doing. Now, Kotaku does atleast come out and point that Lost & Damned came out 2 weeks into February while Killzone 2 only came out the last 2 days of February, but thats conveniently left to the very end of the article. Again, after that headline and 60% of the article, devoted to an exec from Microsoft, damage is done. But, funny how they also forget to mention that Killzone 2 happens to carry a $60 price tag that we all know, but that Lost and Damned is only a $20 title. I wonder if that plays into the equation?

Hit the MagicGate to read the rest of the article.

MagicGate!