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Sony's New CEO To Look Beyond Hardware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the somewhere-out-there dept.

angry tapir writes "Sony's new CEO says the company needs to move on from its hardware roots. From its inception, the company has defined itself through its gadget lines — Walkman, Vaio, Cyber-shot, PlayStation — but incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai, who will officially lead the company from April, says Sony must now focus more on the software and platforms they access. He said he wants to model the company after its successful PlayStation gaming business, which he helped turn around, where 'hardware drives software, and software drives hardware, and it's all tied in by the network.' Sony is forecasting nearly US$3 billion in losses for the fiscal year through March."

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:overpriced, underspecced. by unixisc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The brand name meant something when it actually was made in Japan. Once they started outsourcing to China, like everyone else, there's no reason to pay more for them than anyone else.

  2. Here's an idea by PPH · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sony could add a feature to its hardware platforms to allow loading/running an alternate OS. Preferably one that would attract lots of developers to their platforms. Perhaps even an open source OS, thereby making the best community developed products easy to distribute.

    Nah. It would never work.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Re:It's not going to work by ByOhTek · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apple is not a software company. Apple is a Marketing company that has software and hardware tied for second place.

    Still, they put more focus on doing those things right than Sony does.

    Also, Sony seriously needs to improve their customer service, being on top of the 'worst in the business' pile is NOT the top of the pile you want.

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  4. Samsung is the new Sony by zerofoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It was evident at CES this year. Samsung is the new Sony. Sure, Samsung is getting into the Apps/Online content thing as well, but as far as hardware goes, Samsung has probably beaten Sony in every arena except for gaming.

    Sony's booth at CES was 200 Sq Ft. bigger than Samsung's booth, but it had half as much product. Samsung, by contrast, had a 30,000 Sq.Ft. booth filled to the rim with gadgets and TVs.

    Good luck with that "software drives the hardware" strategy Sony. Very few companies have been able to succeed at that model - actually, I can only think of one - a fruit company based out of Cupertino....

    -ted