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Buy a PlayStation 3 and Sink Sony
sonnyweathers writes "There has never been a more perilous time for Sony than 2006. But if you think you can save the company by buying PlayStation 3 consoles, you're wrong. Analyst Evermore believes that selling 6 million PS3 consoles will make Sony a ripe target for takeover — perhaps even by Microsoft."
... don't buy it and just let it sit there on the store shelves collecting dust. Taking this approach also saves you $600.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Boy, that makes a lot of sense. If Sony makes "6 million PS3 units before April", and sells them all, then they recoup part of their expense. If they don't sell any, then they are somehow better off not recouping anything at all? More sensationalism.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Actually, that's a strategy that could possibly save Sony -- abandon DRM loudly and publicly, and tout themselves as the Kings of Unrestricted Media. A big campaign of "We trust you to not steal our stuff, but Microsoft and Apple think you're thieves."
Sony is too big, and has an vested interest in too many areas. Thus they cannot serve only the consumer in any of their divisions. As long as we see movies with the word "Sony" in the opening credits, we can be certain that Sony hardware will embrace DRM to the fullest extent possible.
If Sony could have their way, the only media and hardware channel between the movies they produce and the consumer would be Betamax®, oops, I mean Memory Stick®, oops, I mean UMD®, oops I mean Blue-ray®. And if someone is reading this 5 years from now, insert whatever DRM infected crap they're currently pushing at the end of that sentence.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Luckily for Nintendo, they sold the Gamecube at a profit. It's a little known business trick in the console industry, but not selling your products at a loss is a great way to make money.
Yes, I know that if I want to purchase consumer goods that I need to work to earn money to be able to afford them. I have no problem with this, the problem I have is that Kutaragi's attitude is one of "The price is not our problem, the price is your problem, do something about it."
If you own a business, and your product is rejected by the market fot being too expensive, then you either deal with the lost sales or change your pricing structure. If you cannot do the former because it would hurt your bottom line, and you cannot do the latter because your have designed a product with a very high materials cost, then it's your problem, not that of your potential customers.
The saddest thing is that Microsoft is probably going to drop the price of the Xbox to $300 or $200 the moment the PS3 hits the stores. Consumers will have to make the choice between many $50 games on a $300 system or a couple $100 games on a $600 system. I think the choice is obvious. The Playstation line had a great run but complete corporate incompetence will probably kill it during this iteration. Pity, but that's life.
You're one of those funny Slashdot people who thinks the masses would care about DRM even if they knew what it was in the first place, aren't you?
Think about what you just said. "abandon DRM loudly and publicly." Go outside your home or office right now and run up to 10 people and ask them if they know what DRM means. Help them out even, let them know DRM stands for Digital RIghts Management but tell them nothing more. You'll be lucky to find one person who can tell you what DRM means. So how exactl would your suggestion help Sony again? And why is Apple so successful despite its use of DRM with iTunes?
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Being a martyr is all fine and dandy. But, honestly. If every white collar worker in America stopped working for corprorations that did one or more things that the individual dissaproves of, we'd have a nation of corporations with only exectuive management left working for them, and an unemployment rate of 99.9%. I left Microsoft a number of years ago. Not for any moral or ethical reasons. They do stuff I think is great (still), and do stuff I think is horrible (still). How is this any different from IBM, Oracle, Intel, AMD, Sony, the rest of corporate america? Experience has taught most people that, the way to make something better, is not to quit on ethical grounds and send yourself and your family to the poor house. Work on making things better, and if at the end of it, you no longer can handle it any more, then make that decision to leave. But, that's a pretty santimonious attitude you have there, no matter how you look at it, Moofie.
Of course, on the other hand, MiniDisc was actually successful in Japan... so something has to be said about Sony's mindshare there.
Read my blog posts on usability.