Sony: "**** it, we'll do this ourselves"

[sciwizam]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/27/sony-buys-out-ericssons-stake-in-joint-venture-assumes-ownersh/

Sony to buy out Ericsson's stake in Sony-Ericsson for €1.05 billion.

Interesting info from the press release:

The transaction also provides Sony with a broad intellectual property (IP) cross-licensing agreement covering all products and services of Sony as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology.

.....

Sony Ericsson held a market share of 11 percent (by value) in the Android phone market, representing 80 percent of the company's third quarter sales.

 

[Medu]

Sony: "**** it, we'll do this ourselves"

Not sure I would have much fate in Sony. It wasn't so long ago that Sony was the main TV, music and gaming brand now where are they? Like a lot of Japanese companies over the last 10 years they lacked the vision. Staying with Plasma too long(Panasonic are still wasting their time on it although it never had a future outside of large TV's), staying with disc based music for too long and then not realising that mobiles were going to be come a hub for everything.... Sony had the potential to have it all but will end up with nothing.

 

[BenSkywalker]

It wasn't so long ago that Sony was the main TV, music and gaming brand now where are they?

If they become the most popular or not, if they are willing to make premium devices that offer superior quality or design advantages over the competition that would be nice to have in the market. Sony's 'mistakes' over the last decade have almost all been with clear goals set on placing quality as a high priority(SACD, BRD, PS3, XBR style TVs etc). Not everything they have done has been what I'm looking for, but from a design perspective at least it will be interesting to see what they come up with(a phone with internals comparable to a Vita would be killer as a singular example).

 

[elitejp]

They have really become an up an coming company in the dslr market. It used to just be nikon and canon, but now sony is right up there with them.

 

[hans007]

Well blue ray has done fairly well. And a lot of their vaio stuff is still top tier in portables. Their TVs have become a step behind Samsung and the ps3 had its issues but they can still turn things around. They aren't palm or something

 

[Anubis]

Sonys LCD TVs are actually the best ones on the market as long as you dont count the Elite branded Sharp. They cost 2x as much as most others but they are better. Nothing anyone else makes (minus the elite) is as good as the HX929.

As for the Plasma comment, they IMO still win but it has gotten much closer. Plasma still has room to advance. Pioneer showed us that, Someone just has to do it.



as for the topic at hand, i have faith sony can do it, however they can def screw it up

Dropping feature phones is good, make 2 or 3 smartphones that are solid and they should not have any issues selling them

 

[Oyeve]

I guess those who have those psp/android phones are sol, all 5 of them.

 

[smartpatrol]

Yeah I have to second that their TVs are quite nice. I just ordered an HX820 after doing lots of homework. The price was actually cheaper than Samsung's high-end D8000 LCDs and the quality is supposedly better.

Can't say I have too much faith in their smartphone division, though. Their Xperia line of smartphones have all been flops so far, and have seemed to lag behind Moto/Samsung/HTC tech-wise. They just announced yet another "me too" Honeycomb tablet as well as a second tablet that folds in half to make it. . . kinda sorta small enough to fit in your pocket if you have really big pockets.

Hopefully with this buy-out we'll see them create some of the truly quality high-end devices that Sony used to be known for.

 

[YoungGun21]

Will be interesting to see if they can pull a chunk of the market their way

 

[WelshBloke]

:'(

:wub:

 

[prism]

IMO they really need to condense their product lines. They're suffering from what Nike did up until recently: they offer a lot of great products, but they also have a ton of low-quality crap, thereby tarnishing their brand image.

 

[lothar]

Sony: "**** it, we'll do this ourselves"

Not sure I would have much fate in Sony. It wasn't so long ago that Sony was the main TV, music and gaming brand now where are they? Like a lot of Japanese companies over the last 10 years they lacked the vision. Staying with Plasma too long(Panasonic are still wasting their time on it although it never had a future outside of large TV's), staying with disc based music for too long and then not realising that mobiles were going to be come a hub for everything.... Sony had the potential to have it all but will end up with nothing.

But yet Plasma TV's are still better than the LCD TV's on the market today...

 

[ponyo]

I don't remember Sony making plasma. I do remember Sony foolishly holding on to Trinitron CRT tech while Samsung was investing heavily into LCD and other flat panels. I know Sony signed joint LCD deal with Samsung years later to play catch-up in flat panel tech.

 

[lothar]

I don't remember Sony making plasma. I do remember Sony foolishly holding on to Trinitron CRT tech while Samsung was investing heavily into LCD and other flat panels. I know Sony signed joint LCD deal with Samsung years later to play catch-up in flat panel tech.

I don't think they ever did.
I was only commenting on that guy who thought Panasonic plasmas are useless and a waste of time when they're still the best TV's on the market today.

 

[darkewaffle]

Plasma is also big, heavy, hot, and powerhungry. Not to mention expensive. They come out ahead significantly in really only one respect, but that margin has been shrinking regularly as other technology matures, so they are 'best' in one respect (image quality), for the time being.

I only have Sony consoles and a Bravia TV, but I've generally had nothing but good experiences with all of them.

 

[Anubis]

Plasma is also big, heavy, hot, and powerhungry. Not to mention expensive. They come out ahead significantly in really only one respect, but that margin has been shrinking regularly as other technology matures, so they are 'best' in one respect (image quality), for the time being.

I only have Sony consoles and a Bravia TV, but I've generally had nothing but good experiences with all of them.

top of the line plasmas are cheaper then their equiv LCD and can be just as thin (sammy D7000/8000) and actually my panny VT 25 is not really any thicker then my vizio sv3 (led lcd)

they do use more power and are heavier. which are non issues as you dont move TVs often and the power difference is maybe 5$ a year total

there are 2 LCDs on the market today they are on equal footing with the best plasmas currently made the sony HX929 and the Sharp Elite Pro. both of which cost 2x as much as a Panny VT30 or Sammy D8k

 

[Naeeldar]

Plasma is also big, heavy, hot, and powerhungry. Not to mention expensive. They come out ahead significantly in really only one respect, but that margin has been shrinking regularly as other technology matures, so they are 'best' in one respect (image quality), for the time being.

I only have Sony consoles and a Bravia TV, but I've generally had nothing but good experiences with all of them.

How do you figure they are expensive? They are cheaper when you look at any large size tv. Quite frankly after owning a 65inch plasma I'll never go smaller again and LED at that size is insanely expensive.

 

[Gibson486]

I love their TVs. If you go to Best Buy, they are a little pricier, but if you live near a Sony Outlet, the prices get slashed a lot and are usually cheaper than the competitors.

 

[foghorn67]

Sony: "**** it, we'll do this ourselves"

Not sure I would have much fate in Sony. It wasn't so long ago that Sony was the main TV, music and gaming brand now where are they? Like a lot of Japanese companies over the last 10 years they lacked the vision. Staying with Plasma too long(Panasonic are still wasting their time on it although it never had a future outside of large TV's), staying with disc based music for too long and then not realising that mobiles were going to be come a hub for everything.... Sony had the potential to have it all but will end up with nothing.

I think this had more to do with yen vs won.

 

[foghorn67]

I love their TVs. If you go to Best Buy, they are a little pricier, but if you live near a Sony Outlet, the prices get slashed a lot and are usually cheaper than the competitors.

hmmm, might have to make a trip to San DeeAhGo one of these days. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Red Storm]

Other than that Playstation phone thing, off the top of my head I couldn't tell you what Android phones Sony Ericsson made. No wonder they got bought out.

 

[destrekor]

Sony: "**** it, we'll do this ourselves"

Not sure I would have much fate in Sony. It wasn't so long ago that Sony was the main TV, music and gaming brand now where are they? Like a lot of Japanese companies over the last 10 years they lacked the vision. Staying with Plasma too long(Panasonic are still wasting their time on it although it never had a future outside of large TV's), staying with disc based music for too long and then not realising that mobiles were going to be come a hub for everything.... Sony had the potential to have it all but will end up with nothing.

It's not a vision thing, rather it is an issue of competitive pricing and product quality. For the better part of the past decade, Sony screwed the pooch in most CE markets.

Also, sticking with Plasma is bad? It's still provides the best overall picture experience in the sizes offered... depending upon panel quality, obviously; a $500 plasma has a difficult time standing next to a $4000 LCD of the same size. I still am completely locked into the idea of my next TV being a plasma.

Sony is quite possibly the best example of how to throw away everything people loved about your company simply by making the wrong business decisions.

They have proved they are trying to turn around in the past few years, but it takes a few good products at the right price point to really alter consumer perception of the brand. They dug themselves into a hole quite deep, it'll take away before they are roaming the surface with the top dogs in most product divisions.
They can make some great products, and have done so in the past few years. Either the pricing has been off, or marketing has been lackluster, or it was a more niche-focused product that didn't have a chance of altering the average perception of brand quality.

I barely own any Sony devices, but if they continue on the path they've been trying for in the past few years, I might end up eyeing their products more often. Depending on my desires, they don't always offer the best choice for me and my money, but they are starting to frequently find themselves in my first choices to compare.

 

[darkewaffle]

How do you figure they are expensive? They are cheaper when you look at any large size tv. Quite frankly after owning a 65inch plasma I'll never go smaller again and LED at that size is insanely expensive.

I didn't realize the difference was cut so much at larger sizes. I don't have a lot of space and as of last summer when I got my Bravia 32EX500 plasma was, and still now is, a pretty significant price increase in smaller models. I guess part of that is that there simply aren't many available in smaller sizes though, as a plasma runs about 4x as much as a 'budget' tv and about twice as much as a nice tv at that size.

Cursory glance at 65 inchers though and the price field is definitely much more even, true.

 

[Red Storm]

I like to hook up my devices to the TV, and I hated having to worry about burn in with plasmas. I switched to LCDs and I haven't looked back since, though maybe burn in is not an issue anymore?

 

[Anubis]

I like to hook up my devices to the TV, and I hated having to worry about burn in with plasmas. I switched to LCDs and I haven't looked back since, though maybe burn in is not an issue anymore?

it hasent been a serious issue for years, it can still happen but you have to be stupid about it, and if you are talking about stupid things you can burn in LCDs as well

Temp image retention still exists and I beleive a lot of people mistake it for burnin, Temp IR goes away in a matter of seconds or a few min