Slashdot Mirror
Sony Already Lost Media War to Apple?
Declan McCullagh writes "Sony's Walkman was the king of media players. Now Apple's iPod is, and Sony Connect was a flop. But Sony's problems may soon be even bigger: the company is having a remarkably difficult time coordinating software development across different divisions and continents, and some managers are worried that things may be getting worse. Will Apple's recent forays into the living room create even more of a problem for Sony?"
I love my Apple-centric media room, don't get me wrong, but Apple makes two things: computers and MP3 players.
Okay, and now a crappy $300 stereo for the den.
Sony is a player in almost every personal electronics market there is, with the possible exception of "massage wand" marital aids. They can afford to lag behind in one or two market segments for a few years and bounce back.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Sony is a player in almost every personal electronics market there is, with the possible exception of "massage wand" marital aids. They can afford to lag behind in one or two market segments for a few years and bounce back.
You can afford to behave as stupidly as Sony has for only so long in today's marketplace. If they don't split up their conglomerate into separate entities that can actually innovate and compete without interfering with each other, the market will do it for them.
Sony does not have to just worry about Apple, they have to worry about Microsoft's XBox 360. That is here today with a full online component. The PS3 is nowhere in sight and they will have to build an online component from scratch...
I think it's more likely that Sony and Apple will want to collaborate in the future. I don't see Sony going gently nto that good night, and they've been more than willing to deal with Apple in the past. In case you missed it, Jobs demoed the new mac mini on a Sony brand television, which isn't saying much, but it does speak to a general affability between the two.
Pain is God trying to be funny. That's how out of touch It is. -- Jeff Lint
1) "The 'killer app' of tomorrow won't be software or hardware devices,
but the social practices they make possible." - Howard Rheingold
The Sony 'iPod killers' are just using new technology to accomplish the same social purpose. The only difference between the Sony products and the Apple ones is that the Sony ones are less sexy. If Sony wants to succeed, they need to make a product that A) serves a new social purpose and B) is more sexy. Let's face it: the iPod is already sexy. But the iPod is sexy as in sexy to look at. That was good enough five years ago, but not today. I want REAL sexy. Not just sexy as in sexy to look at sexy, but sexy as in dripping down your face sexy.
2) "The real 'iPod killer' won't be an mp3 player."
The world doesn't need a new mp3 player. The iPod is already good enough. The real iPod killer won't be an mp3 player. It won't even play mp3s. It will do something entirely different. The problem is the people who run these companies like Sony are a little slow and don't get this, so we get these people investing 100 million dollars to create shit products that any five year old knows won't sell when they could be creating the next patent pending paradigm shifting curve jumping technology for 1/20th of that much.
Sony's biggest problem is not Apple.
Sony's biggest problem is the contempt it has shown it's customers.
I'll buy Apple products.
/two words: root kit.
/Two more: never forget.
Hardly surprising, then, that it has that effect on distributed development. Apple has the advantage of keeping its developers together, which is fine as long as you have a narrow product base.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Did you know that with all the various products that Sony sells that the Playstation division is basically carrying the entire company? And if the PS3 doesn't do well vs the XBox 360 and Nintendo Revolution the company itself may go bankrupt?
Sony keeps trying to force unattractive standards on the market. From the Memory Stick, to Betamax to Blu-Ray it just never fucknig seems to learn its lesson about using open standards. That pisses people off and its why their consumer electronics division is getting its butt kicked by Apple and Samsung.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
But as for now, when people think of Sony, they think of a company that produces mediocre products and treats them like criminals. And that's not going to help the company move its merchandise.
Albuquerque PC
i'd say microsoft is more of a threat than apple. let's not forget that sony has an indomitable foothold in the living room already - the PS2. The living room is theirs to lose.
When I first learned how to code - I had a high school teacher named Mr. Rice - and he always admonished me to keep it simple. He'd write KISS on the board - and then say no offense - to which I'd reply, - none taken. Sony can't seem to keep it simple.
All of which is to say - all Sony has to do is SHOW UP ON TIME - and the living room is theirs. But no - they keep trying to kill every DAVID out there. If the PS3 were coming out RIGHT NOW - the console wars would be a rout - Sony would win. Even with no killer launch titles - Sony would be a hands down winner because of the installed user base and backwards compatibility. They can always add their online service later - in say the PS3.1 or whatever. Blu-Ray spec issues? Add it in PS3.2. They just need to be in the marketplace with a new product.
To win in the living room - you must deliver gaming. Because apple does not - they're not yet a living room solution. Microsoft delivers gaming in a very nice package - but they don't know how to design for the living room - meaning they design boxes that age poorly and soon seem and look anachronistic (the xbox one is so damn ugly). But the X-Box gaming experience is superior - and x-box live is a gaming solution without competition. They just can't get games out there fast enough.
The first one stop gaming/DVR/audio/movie device with already recognizable brand awareness wins the living room hands down.
un burrito me trampeó.
Why not anymore?
Sony isn't the best at anything, and is overpriced at everything, but if you don't feel like doing any market research, buy a Sony and you will do okay.
- The Sony Cybershot is a pretty good camera.
- The Sony Receivers are feature-rich, support lots of inputs, and sound good.
- The Sony DVD player is a pretty good unit for $100 which plays most formats.
- The Sony car stereos work well, are reasonably powerful, and sound nice.
- The Sony laptops are slick little units which do a pretty good job of staving off "iBook envy" among Windows bigots.
- The Sony ear buds are actually a small step up from the iPod's offerings for only ten bucks.
- The Sony phase-cancelling headphones are a much better choice than the Bose ones you see pushed in most stores.
- The Sony cabinet speakers... are total crap, sure, but they're not really in the high-end speaker market.
The grandparent post is right. They've got a reputation for being "pretty good" in almost every market where they have a presense, and an easy brand to look for if you're a busy yuppy with no desire to study reviews and compare prices all day.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Why is competition in the marketplace always characterized as a "war?"
Why are these "wars" always lost before anyone even knows about them?
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
And how long until you can buy HD H.264 videos from iTMS? I think this is the biggest threat to Sony. If Apple can deliver HD content without needing Blu-Ray or HD DVD, then I can see both formats suffering, especially if Apple are first to market and if they offer a rental model (e.g. $1 for a 7-day version, $5 for a version you can archive). Plug in a few hundred GB of FireWire storage to your Mac Mini, and you have a nice unit fir archiving all of this content...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Japanese companies always produced the best consumer electronics. In Japan, everyone had a wide range of responsibilies. The same people worked on software, hardware, design and experience on previous products was applied to new products. If programmers couldn't design useful interfaces, they didn't survive.
The problem seems to be their attempts to apply American specialization to consumer electronics. Now the programmers are supposed to just program, the EE's just design hardware, interface design is strictly management, and needs are filled by hiring and firing instead of reusing people.
Consumer electronics aren't the kinds of things you can apply American specialization to. Those who think they can are being eaten up by the LG's and Samsungs. Apple has Slashdot on its side, and that helps a lot.
I would buy a Sony Walkman if they were actually any good. The current models are more expensive than the iPod and have less features, and very ugly designs. Sony need to lower their prices to even be considered as a serious player in the MP3 market. I saw a stupid little Sony Walkman player, the screen was about half the size of the iPod nano screen, and it was only 256MB and it was over $200!