PC Magazine asks: "Will Sony Ever Be Sony Again?"

MatthewA · 08-18-2006, 02:33 PM

I found this article and I think it makes some good points:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2003413,00.asp

What does everyone else think?

Ricardo C · 08-18-2006, 04:04 PM

Excellent article. I particularly like the final paragraphs:

Quote:

The true beginning of the end for Sony actually started in 1988, when it paid $2 billion for CBS Records and in the next year bought Columbia and Tri-Star pictures. Instead of being an innovative electronics company, Sony got into the content business. Worse, it got into that business during the beginnings of the digital revolution, when content would be cheapened in true value by virtue of the fact that it could be easily turned into bits and sent around networks by the public.

So did Sony want to be the company making the devices to do this digital thing? Or was it more interested in the content that it needed to protect from the reality of a digital world? In this way, Sony created a conflict of interest between its future as an electronics innovator and its association with an old business that would be threatened by the digital landscape.

Of course, Sony could have led the way into new business models that might have revolutionized the movie and record businesses, but it didn't. Instead it adopted a conservative ideology that would not serve its innovative soul in any way. In fact, the company obviously killed whatever innovative soul it had. And now Sony languishes while exhibiting an odd, inexplicable arrogance that cocoons everything it does and every decision it makes. It's a shame.

Manus · 08-18-2006, 05:53 PM

Can anyone else imagine what a vibrant, creative and dynamic industry would be be left from Hollywood to player development if this lot were taken out of the equation ?

Happy days,
~M~

MatthewA · 08-18-2006, 06:27 PM

I've begun to believe the only way to save this company is to spin off its content holdings (Music, Movies, etc) into a separate company. That includes Sony Music, Columbia Pictures, MGM, and every back catalogue they've collected through acquisitions (United Artists, Norman Lear, Orion, you name it).

Pete T C · 08-18-2006, 06:36 PM

I'll still buy their TVs. In fact, the display I'm using now is a Sony. But Blu-Ray just stinks of DRM and greed IMO.

**HTF Ads**

Ed St. Clair · 08-18-2006, 11:27 PM

I think Sony's A/V (mostly video) R&D kicks some serious tail!
Their CS has a lot to be desired.
And they have indeed spread themselves too thin.

I don't want to give them any helpful hints, as its fun to watch them twist in the wind, after the way they have treated dealers and customers in the past.

Fredster · 08-19-2006, 07:26 AM

He says "Sony has been in a steep decline as far as innovation and clear thinking are concerned for at least a decade."

The author clearly missed the whole "Playstation" thing.

Perhaps he should stick the typical PC mag stuff - 101 Greatest Windows Registry Hacks or something like that....

Manus · 08-19-2006, 09:32 AM

I will never again purchase Sony hardware. They've been caught with their hand in the jar once too often IMO and I really do not trust them any more. I agree that they have become too huge a corporation (s) to be able to see where they want to be in 5-10 years time.Very poor management, very poor customer relations/attitude.

~M~

Ed B · 08-19-2006, 10:20 AM

Even though I own a large stash of Sony Products, 53"TV, 5.1DTS amp, PS2, etc.. I've lost faith in the company.

First I think that as they got larger their quality control has dropped. I was going to say that this is common but then I thought about Canon and how they continue to make excellent Cameras and Printers. With Sony's hands into so many things one would think that they have enough financial interests yet they're greedy by trying to force their media standards on the consumers such as Memory stick, Minidisc, and UMD. The PSP is locked down so you cant watch full resolution movies on a memory stick so you had to buy the UMD movie, recently they released a full resolution movie on the MS. The PSP is a great little handheld which could of done so much better if it had reasonable memory options, such as a CF slot and if it wasn't restrictively locked down. The PSP is about ready to fall into obscurity and they're ready to push their next gaming system leaving many customers / fans of the console left to hack their units to get some good use out of it. The PS3 is their flagship system, it could easily win the next gen console war however they're so arrogant that they feel the system will win regardless so they decided to add another non-standard format to the system, bd. This is the worst move that they could of done, this placed the console at a higher price than the competitors and its also backfired. The gamers don't care about BD they care about the games. If you've owned a PS2 you know that the lasers in those units failed and the thought of reducing the life span of your console to play movies was dumb, this will hold true even more when people play a $600 gaming machine.

Lastly Sony's most underhanded and shady thing ever done buy a large corp was to install rootkit viruses on their music CDs.

Ryan-G · 08-20-2006, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredster

The author clearly missed the whole "Playstation" thing.

No he didn't.

Playstation was designed for Nintendo, then released when Nintendo decided not to use it.

Playstation 2 promised to use the "Emotion Engine!" to do all kinds of things that couldn't be done on a PC, and be a media center besides. If you looked between the lines, Sony's goal was an attempt to be proprietary forcing studios into exclusivity. It was all it could do to match the X-box in terms of graphics in the end.

Playstation 3 is even worse. A poorly veiled attempt to take over the PC market and force exclusivity on developers by being everything to everyone, it'll be lucky to sell out it's initial shipments at it's ridiculously high pricing. It definitely will be a "Me too!", not top dog.

Fredster · 08-21-2006, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan-G

No he didn't.

Playstation was designed for Nintendo, then released when Nintendo decided not to use it.

Playstation 2 promised to use the "Emotion Engine!" to do all kinds of things that couldn't be done on a PC, and be a media center besides. If you looked between the lines, Sony's goal was an attempt to be proprietary forcing studios into exclusivity. It was all it could do to match the X-box in terms of graphics in the end.

Playstation 3 is even worse. A poorly veiled attempt to take over the PC market and force exclusivity on developers by being everything to everyone, it'll be lucky to sell out it's initial shipments at it's ridiculously high pricing. It definitely will be a "Me too!", not top dog.

Yes he did!