“In what I wouldn’t ever describe as a fair fight, Sony [SNE] CEO, Howard Stringer, says he is finally ready to ‘compete against Steve Jobs,'” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “It seems a little crass that it took the death of the Apple [AAPL] visionary before Stringer could bring it on.”
“‘I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs. It’s finished, and it’s launching now,'” Forbes reports. Sony hopes to compete by offering an ecosystem of products, spanning its television sets, tablets, smartphones and PCs, all ably supported by its media assets: PlayStation games, and Sony’s music and film imprints,” Evans writes.
“Sony faces the anticipated introduction of an Apple-branded television set, offering support for iTunes, iCloud, AirPlay and apps, most likely controlled through some cheap touch device, an iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone,” Evans writes. “Many (myself included) think it possible Apple will create a voice-controlled television, using Siri voice technologies. Can Stringer fight back?”
Read more in the full article here.
blockquote>MacDailyNews Take: Can Stringer fight back? No, and neither can Sony once Stringer finally goes his merry way.
This is a major debacle for Sony!!!
All one has to do is try to use a sony remote to know that Sony is dead.
Tell me about it. OMG what a FAIL.
“Apple’s Steve Jobs will beat Sony from beyond”?? Sounds like a zombie Steve Jobs is going to give Stringer a reach-around.
Still not a fair fight. 😉
No he won’t.
There is no “beyond.”
Says who??
Says God. Eccl. 9:5. – The living know that they will die. The dead know nothing at all. The word “know” here is referring to conscious thought. Steve’s in a deep dreamless sleep. His hard drive has been shut off. And you or I have no power to turn it back on.
To keep margins of 30% or more, Apple would have to compete in a market where there are nothing but losses on selling screens. The money seems to be in licensing or selling a card to handle the interface between the content sources and the user. I think it unlikely that we will see an Apple large screen TV unless it is a beachhead product followed by the licensing scenario.
“Sony hopes to compete by offering an ecosystem of products, spanning its television sets, tablets, smartphones and PCs, all ably supported by its media assets: PlayStation games, and Sony’s music and film imprints.”
Not going to happen. Why not? One glaring omission from the list above: software.
Sony’s been going downhill ever since software expertise became crucial to consumer electronics. As long as they have no home-grown answer to the software problem, they will continue to struggle.
Are they still going to rely on Windows? Immediate fail if the answer is yes.
Oh, you need to read the full article for some schadenfreudelicious stuff about Google TV:
Meanwhile, over at Google, a company which favors data above design, teams are reeling at news Logitech plans to drop its own Google TV-driven Apple TV competing device from its product matrix.
The Logitech Revue has been an abject $100 million failure. Logitech’s CEO Guerrino De Luca called it “a mistake” — and he blamed the Google TV software for not being ready at launch.
Suck it, Google!
——RM
“Sony [SNE] CEO, Howard Stringer, says he is finally ready to ‘compete against Steve Jobs,’”
Hilarious.
Is this dope fishing for a golden parachute or what? This shows EXACTLY that dumbass Stringer is really all about: Marketing. He is a classic Marketing-As-Management-Moron, the bane of all biznizz endeavors.
Dear Sony: It is possible to recover from Marketing-As-Management horror. Apple did it! But it means a thorough overhaul of your now demented Sony work culture via a return to ENTREPRENEURIAL management. Get to it and fast, or watch Sony rot in a hurry, just like Kodak.
Oh and STFU Stringer, destroyer of Sony. 😯
Sony, stop being a concubine-slave to Microsoft or Google. Be yourself and you will prosper.
I just got through teaching another presentation intensive to mid-level Sony engineers here in Tokyo. They seem to be skilled and dedicated, but twisting in the wind. There are gifted engineers all over the world. They told me they are not impressed with Stringer, but, as they say, “shoganai.” I think a primary issue in all Japanese companies is the inherent tendency to tolerate mediocrity within a company. It’s a characteristic of Japanese culture. They also talk about their new generation of young recruits – 21 year-olds with terrible attitudes, resulting from recent relaxations in the Japanese education system. The kind of ruthless insistence on innovative excellence that characterized the Jobs management style is inconceivable here.
“The kind of ruthless insistence on innovative excellence that characterized the Jobs management style is inconceivable here.”
The crazy thing is that there a people, young and old, who thrive upon and even demand a work culture that is insistent on innovation. We despise mediocrity and get Steve jobsesque reputations for saying so. Mediocrity is a disease we refuse to contract.
IOW: Despite the other problems at Sony (besides the Marketing-As-Management self-destruction) it is entirely possible for them to TOSS the mediocrity at Sony and return to successful entrepreneurial management and work culture. But it is going to take a drive for revolution within the company, and that is indeed a reluctant behavior within Japanese culture. Nonetheless, there have been some incredibly brilliant revolutionaries in Japan’s history.
My hope is that Sony will come back from its moribund state to be the competition Apple requires to drive its future innovative spirit.
Be entrepreneurial or die.
ERROR: Please read: “The crazy thing is that there are people…”
(me = too hurried to edit today. apologies).
I thought Stringer was a lame-duck CEO? Hasn’t it already been announced that he would be replaced?
You guys seem to know a whole different brand of Japanese than I’ve worked with. They are data-driven and unrelenting in their pursuit of their quality standards. The problem with Sony is too many gaijin at the top.
Unfortunately, the do seem enamored with complex, multi-level menu driven user interfaces that don’t have an intuitive bone in their body. The Sony remote is a prime example, as are most ham radios (all Japanese made).
Sony’s problem, and it’s a common problem among the Oriental producers: all kinds of effort to manufacture the product but few resources are put into software.
So that’s where Miss Cleo went to!