
Sony forecasts record annual loss of $6.4bn - noinput
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/04/2012410112521128156.html
======
rdtsc
Sony used to be a brand associated with quality and good design. It took them
a while to build that reputation. But then they stopped being better than
their competitors (and not necessarily saying they got a lot worse, maybe
their competitors got better faster). So for many years they kept riding the
quality and brand recognition train. But the train is slowly coming to a stop
I think.

~~~
masklinn
> not necessarily saying they got a lot worse

I am. The Sony of now is significantly worse than the Sony of 20 years ago. I
think this followed from one primary thing: shift to software, which Sony has
been absolutely terrible at forever. I owned a NetMD, and if you think iTunes
is terrible you've never had to use OpenMD Jukebox (or its equally
horrifyingly terrible successor SonicStage). See also: PSN, or the bloatware
they shovel onto their computers.

They've also spread themselves too thin trying to cover low and high ends of
the market, making themselves unremarkable at the low end and under-average at
the high ends.

And of course lashing out against threats to its outdated business models
(Sony BMG XCP) and mis-handling of many properties, riding horses to death
(I'm sure I'm not the only one with pretty bad memories of the way Sony Online
Entertainment managed pretty much all of its games _and relation with players_
, aside from the PSN fiasco) has likely made them pretty unpopular with the
technically savvy crowd.

~~~
rdtsc
> I think this followed from one primary thing: shift to software, which Sony
> has been absolutely terrible at forever.

A very interesting phenomenon (and it has been discussed here as well) is how
software has always been seen as inferior to hardware in Japan. Besides Ruby,
what other well known software packages or services are coming from Japan? I
can't think of one of the top of my head.

There is also a culture of "appliances" there. They are infatuated with
appliances and robots where hardware comes through as the main feature rather
than with general PCs and laptops where software is at the front stage. I
think there is a cultural difference there. But I think at some point Sony
realized that that not focusing on software is a problem, and perhaps an order
came from the CEO to "start writing more software". But of course you can't
change the entrenched company culture easily. So I think they got distracted
with that, they wasted resources and ended up with inferior hardware and
inferior software as a result.

~~~
daniel-cussen
Carbon emacs also comes from Japan, IIRC.

------
nextparadigms
Maybe this means they will be forced to sell Sony Music. That would mean the
music labels would consolidate even further. But that's fine with me. It will
be bad in the short term, but the more monopolistic they'll become the sooner
artists will quit them, and the big labels will finally die.

------
gghootch
How many people in your immediate vicinity do you know who still have a Sony
product aside from a Playstation?

I could think of only one and he's got IEMs they do not make anymore...

Are there any popular Sony electronics left out there?

~~~
apawloski
I see Vaio laptops fairly frequently at my university. Is Sony positioned
internally in other supply chains too? That is, do we see Sony parts in other
products?

~~~
Groxx
Does Sony still make Apple's batteries? I can't find the info anywhere.

~~~
atlbeer
Samsung was iSuppli's best guess. It's an "Apple" branded battery usually on
the inside.

------
fennecfoxen
That's 6.4 Instagrams!

(Sorry, I saw an editorial talking about a tax proposal and the budget deficit
in terms of Instagrams instead of billions. Yay for trendy new units!)

------
burke
That works out to about 31% of their current market cap. Wow.

~~~
pagekalisedown
Wow indeed. I hope this doesn't affect the development of the Playstation 4.

~~~
astrodust
If they blink, if they hesitate, they've already lost.

Microsoft has mountains of cash to throw at their new XBox project. Apple
isn't going to stop making iOS devices. Even Amazon might weasel in.

~~~
slyn
It would be a mistake for Sony to forget Valve and Steam in that list as well,
rumor being they have a console in development as well.

~~~
Splines
Valve making a console would put them between a rock and a hard place - either
force Steam users to use the console and alienate their loyal PC base, or
compete head-to-head with the PC market and have a hard uphill battle.

~~~
gravitronic
Are you suggesting the console market is always competing head-to-head with
the PC market?

I would argue a steam console that played console-oriented games using the
steam platform is a great idea to compliment the pc-based service, and not
competing head-to-head.

~~~
Splines
I think Valve's titles are very PC-centric.

I'm guessing that they will continue this route, even if they made a "PC-in-a-
box". If I'm a Valve customer interested in 1st party titles (HL3, L4D3,
Portal 3, etc.), why would I buy a console (even if it _is_ a Valve one), when
I can already play their games on my PC?

> _I would argue a steam console that played console-oriented games using the
> steam platform is a great idea to compliment the pc-based service, and not
> competing head-to-head._

I think Sony is in a great position to do this (see their partnership with
Portal 2), although the PSN team might have something to say about that. Maybe
Nintendo can partner with them to flesh out their online story.

All-in-all, it's a tough sell (at least from what I can see). If they do
launch it I don't see it being anything more than a niche device.

They _can_ overcome this by pulling off other tricks, like including a
subscription to all Valve titles, or making it extremely cheap, or some sort
of exclusivity (at the potential cost of their PC fanbase). Otherwise the
value proposition is basically a prebuilt PC with the Valve logo on the
outside.

~~~
w1ntermute
> I think Valve's titles are very PC-centric.

They certainly are. But Valve has proven nimble in the past, so I wouldn't
pulling off a transition to the console space past them. After all, Microsoft
was able to do it successfully.

I think the key difference we'll see between traditional console gaming and
the Steam Box (if it materializes) will be a complete elimination of physical
media and a corresponding sea change in the pricing models (pretty much the
same as what we see on Steam right now). Obviously, existing console makers
like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are loathe to cannibalize existing sales by
moving online. But Valve has nothing to lose - even if it cannibalizes some PC
game sales, they'll still be making the same (or similar) amount of money.

> why would I buy a console (even if it is a Valve one), when I can already
> play their games on my PC?

Remember, Valve is no longer just a game developer - it's also a content
distributor for the PC gaming industry at large. Originally, it had to
jumpstart Steam with its own titles, which are definitely PC-centric. But now
that Steam is an established player in the PC gaming industry, it will be much
easier to convince prominent 3rd party console game developers to develop
games in advance of the Steam Box's release. Valve no doubt has clear
financial data showing the advantages (for game developers, not for the
console makers) of shifting to a digital distribution model.

------
pacaro
I wonder how much of this is down to them drinking their own Kool-Aid or
believing their own hype. It seems to me that each time they are about to
release a new console they make ridiculous claims about how their new
processor is going to make the PC obsolete. I know that people have used PSen
of various generations to make "supercomputers" but their impact outside of
gaming has been close to zero.

OTOH my most recent laptop was a Vaio and I'm very happy with it.

~~~
redthrowaway
Sony's decision to remove OtherOS functionality, thereby killing the PS3's
utility as a supercomputing component, was made in order to staunch losses.
The Cell architecture was expensive and every PS3 was sold at a loss, with the
idea being to recoup money in game licensing fees. Obviously there weren't
many games being played on supercomputers, so once Sony had the feelgood story
of the Air Force building supercomputers out of PS3s, they quietly pulled the
plug.

This is a long-winded way of saying the PS3' lack of widespread use in
supercomputing is not responsible for Sony's losses. Rather, blame their
flailing consumer electronics and mobile business.

------
mariuolo
Sony products have been decent but way overpriced for a long time now.

