Sony Is Done Working For Peanuts in the Hardware Business, New CEO To Detail Shift Away From Gadgets (bloomberg.com)

Kenichiro Yoshida, who took over as chief executive officer in April, is set to unveil a three-year plan on Tuesday that embraces Sony's growing reliance on income from gaming subscriptions and entertainment. From a report: The transition is already happening: even though the company sold fewer hardware products such as televisions, digital cameras, smartphones and PlayStation consoles in the year through March, it was able to post record operating profit. It's a tectonic shift for a company built on manufacturing prowess. Sony popularized transistor radios, gave the world portable music with the Walkman and its TVs were considered top-of-the-line for decades. With the rise of Chinese manufacturing, making and selling gadgets has become a business with razor-thin profit margins. Investors have applauded the transformation that's been under way since Kazuo Hirai took over as CEO in 2012, with the shares climbing more than five-fold amid a turnaround.

Comments

Junk

[Thelasko]

They're getting beat up in the hardware market because they didn't invest in quality control. Sony used to be a premium brand. Rather than invest in high quality products, they tried to force vendor lock-in through a variety of boondoggles. This was a poor investment choice as only one of these technologies took off (Blue-ray, but only kinda). Had they spent that much money on quality, they could charge a premium over the competition.

Components

[sjbe]

It was those yellow walkmans in the 90s. Those where like a 90s iPhone, every kid had to have one.

You do realize that every iPhone has a Sony camera in it?

Also I'd suggest that the Playstation at least at one point qualified as a hit gadget.