Friday May 25, 2012

Sony's Stringer reportedly to step down as president

Business ( 38 )

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Stringer became chairman and chief executive in 2005 as the first foreign chief at Sony AFP

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38 Comments

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  • 4

    globalwatcher

    Sony has been mired in the red with its television business losing money. It has been hit by a strong yen, hacker attacks on its PlayStation Network, and both Japan’s earthquake-tsunami disaster and floods in Thailand last year.

    No, disagree..

    Sony's failure has been discussed and concluded it is due to a lack of business focus and a bang innovation in global market. They are not catching up with a speed of technology changes today. Sony has been a lost child for the past 20 years. I am surprised they are still in business, IMHO.

  • 3

    paulinusa

    There are many aspects to the company's decline. Televisions, which were the main product that drove profits have become a commodity wiith much lower profit margins. Sony still has an edge over Korean TV's, but not enough to justify a premium price.. Innovation (lacking in recent years) and software(always a weak point) have to be more of a focus. Sony is arguably (other than Toyota,Honda,Panasonic?) one of the most recognized Japanese brands in the world ( in a US survey a few years back many young people actually thought it was an American company ) For them to squander their name brand would be a travesty

  • 1

    Spidey

    Japan's really starting to clean house. Who's next...Nissan?

  • 2

    badmigraine

    As a kind of computer and gadget geek, it always amazes me to see a 69-year-old geezer in charge of Sony. I'm sure he has the corporate stuff down pat. But you wonder if this guy has ever had to set up a TV and DVD player, let alone troubleshoot a flaky install on one of their laptops. Not that these are requirements for the job--they are just simple tasks typical of the world in which their customers operate. And most 69-year-olds have no clue about it. I remember trying to explain the massive crapware/malware scandal to my 70+ year old father. He finally just smiled patronizingly and said "Ah-hah..." and closed his eyes. He had no concept, nothing to connect it to. How bad could it be? A few kids whining about some computer thing. Yeah.

  • 0

    EdwardsJapan

    @paulinusa

    Korean TV's are actually much better than Sony TV's. Korean electronics company LG now uses advanced OLED panels which are the best quality panels for TV's nowadays. Maybe 5 years ago Sony and Sharp were doing better, however Korean companies, especially LG, have outpaced them in quality. That's why Sony buys all their LCD-TV panels from LG.

    OLED panels achieve the best contrast ratios, most realistic colors and faster speeds than normal LED panels. Also, the new LG OLED TV's are ultra-thin at 4mm with a screen size of 55", while Sony TV's are like bricks if it wants to achieve the same size.

  • -4

    issa1

    Sony and other Japanese companies has struggled heroically against these companies Korean however is useless to try to compete with LG, Samsung, because these copycat companies have been systematically more efficient to copy and launch products faster than Japanese companies. Let them follow your path, at some point they will have to develop its own technology from scratch, oh yes,ouch we will see how that Korean companies are really competitive.

  • 0

    globalwatcher

    @issa1,

    I would like to know how on earth Samsung and LG got a technology from Sony and many others in Japan?

    That's something Japanese did not do very well as far as patents protection issues. Both Samsung and LG are doing very well in global market, especially in US. My 56 inch HDTV LED 1080 Sumsung I purchased during Christmas is now back ordered due to a few inventories with the Best Buy.

    Now I read this topic of Sony struggling in the market, it just makes me very sad for them.

  • 0

    Fadamor

    Sony ruled the electronics world when the Walkman was ubiquitous. They tripped up with the "Discman" and absolutely tumbled with the "Watchman". Their Playstation console helped some, but stiff competition from Microsoft's X-Box minimized any boost to Sony's sales.

    Adding to that, Sony lost a good portion of their music consumer base with the following DRM scandal (from Wiki):

    In October 2005, it was revealed by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals that Sony BMG's music CDs had installed a rootkit on the user's computer as a DRM measure (called Extended Copy Protection by its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was difficult to detect or remove.[44] This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users. The uninstaller Sony initially provided removed the rootkit, but in turn installed a dial-home program that posed an even greater security risk. Sony eventually provided an actual uninstaller that removed all of Sony's DRM program from the user's computer. Sony BMG faced several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.[45] On 31 January 2007, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a news release announcing that Sony BMG had agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Sony BMG committed several offenses against United States federal law. This settlement required that Sony BMG allow consumers to exchange the CDs through 30 June 2007, and to reimburse consumers for up to $150 for the repair of damage to their computers that they may have incurred while removing the software.

  • 0

    thepro

    Sony is all but finished. Why would I buy a Sony TV when I can pay $200 less for a Samsung?

  • -1

    SamuraiBlue

    All Ferica chips installed within your "Osaifu" Keitai are made by Sony so are the various RFID non-contact train passes around Asia and parts of the US.

    Japan is developing the 4K（4096×2160）TV with not a single Korean company in the race as of yet. As for OLED monitors, they are still a bit too pricy for large size application(for the general public) and are still confined to small size monitors such as smart phones application.

  • -1

    GW

    Sony has been weak for a long time now, I just cant believe how daft J-electronics companies have been the last 15yrs, they come up sometimes with something new & boast how it will lead them blah blah blah, when in reality a lot of consumer products the last 2decades VERY QUICKLY simply become commodity products with slim margins, Korea seems to make do with it but J-companies usually flop, look at Sharp with all its excess production capability for screens they pretty much have no hope in hell of making $$ out of, its become painful to watch

  • -1

    issa1

    To Globalwatcher

    " That's something Japanese did not do very well as far as patents protection issues."

    The big problem of that country is corporatism in the judicial system and any foreign company trying to protect their intellectual rights going to lose the case, for a local company.

    Sorry, my english is horrible!!

  • 0

    sasakama

    SONY would go back to the profit if they focus on software base service like Apple because they have a lot of gaming content and platform. in that sense Playstation VITA is one of last resorts to shift to such biz model which allow SONY to be on the bandwagon.

  • 1

    SamuraiBlue

    issa1

    That is stretching the truth. Even if there is a biased decision within their own nation, international corporations could easily take the other company to court at the nations they export. The truth is companies are suing other companies over patents all the time and ends up tying cross-licensing their rights to each other.

    In my opinion neither LED monitors are superior over the other it just price in which Korean manufacturers have an initiative over the Japanese counterpart.

  • 0

    issa1

    Samuraiblue,

    "Japan is developing the 4K（4096×2160）TV with not a single Korean company in the race as of yet."

    I am layman in this topic but just look at the past and you will see that all technologies developed for the home entertainment were quickly copied by Korean companies, unfortunately will not be different with this new technology. Is easy to sell for half price when it is not necessary to run any risk investing time and money in research. I prefer to pay up to 50% more for a legitimate product of a Japanese company and that's why I refuse to buy any product Korean.

  • 0

    The_True

    I prefer to pay up to 50% more for a legitimate product of a Japanese company

    issa1 i feel sorry for you!

  • -1

    vg866

    issa1

    Your posts reek of Japanese nationalism(the worst kind). Yes its true that Korean television makers copied Japan..... 30 years ago. Why do you conveniently ignore the fact that Japanese TV makers got their start by copying western companies? Its ok for Japan to steal and copy but no one else?

    Nowadays most television and flat panel tech innovations come from countries like Korea. Japan has long become irrelevant. In fact the gap is so wide that Japanese companies like Sony buy panels from Korean companies, add some modifications to it and then sell it off as Japanese technology. Thats why Japanese television and indeed electronics makers as a whole are doing so poorly right now.

    Its like you guys are living in a bubble where Japanese technology is at the top. Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Microsoft and other non Japanese are the future. Sonys future is bleak.

  • 0

    GW

    I prefer to pay up to 50% more for a legitimate product of a Japanese company and that's why I refuse to buy any product Korean.

    Its that kind of built in blind patriotism Japan is so good at that keep foreign competition in Japan at bay, although not as much as in the past, but the market here has peaked & is in decline so foreign companies dont bitch & complain as much about it as Japan is becoming not worth the bother or they just realize its a market in decline & treat accordingly.

    But for J-companies unless they can do well outside Japan many are dead in the water

  • 2

    SamuraiBlue

    vg866

    Sorry but OLED was first developed by the Americans and IPS panels are Japanese(Hitachi to be precise). Don't really much Korean led innovations within this area. I don't remember but I believe the first 3D panels (120Hz refresh rate) were Japanese as well.

  • 0

    JeffLee

    @SamuraiBlue "it just price in which Korean manufacturers have an initiative over the Japanese counterpart."

    You are wrong. I bought a Korean Iriver Mp3 player and a Sony one, both around the same price. The iRiver had many more functions. The radio tuner, for instance, was international. The Sony radio could only be used in Japan! Since many people use their media players for travelling, this is just stupidity.

  • 1

    Ayler

    I love Japan and I love Japanese products, but the bare truth is regarding price, regionalisation and compatibility the Japanese consumer gets properly shafted.

  • 1

    wanderlust

    "Sony Time" has become a byword for their poor manufacturing control - that very small period of time between the expiry of the guarantee/ warranty, and the failure or breakdown of their products.

    Plus Sony service is extremely poor, unless it involves professional broadcasting equipment which they do fix very quickly; otherwise you risk being shunted from one department to another, with constant excuses of why something cannot be fixed...

    A legendary company, who spent a fortune breaking into Hollywood, and then forgot their reason for being there...

  • 2

    johninnaha

    SONY never recovered from Morita's death.

    The Walkman was incredible for its time.

  • 0

    anglootaku

    Stringer can be loved and hated at the same time, he has been doing a lot to revitalize Sony, he made Sony's movie division a powerhouse with a lot of hits coming out, though he has axed the Aibo and near mass produced bipedal robot Qrio, the division was sold off to Toyota's robot division. Dubai investment has purchased 5% of of the company's share to get the company out of the red, without them, they would of been in a much worse situation by now.

  • 1

    anglootaku

    Chinese dumped goods is also making quality brands turn crap too :(

  • 0

    anglootaku

    Sony recently launched an online distribution hub similar to that of Itunes and Androids Market, which is a good sign, in the past they were stubborn about their Atrac proprietary format back in the 90s-2000s which pretty much killed the walkman.

  • 1

    Ah_so

    In the mid-90s Japan had the world consumer electronics market sewn up. It missed the opportunities of the cell phone and then the smart phone, despite being a couple of years ahead of the rest of the world in phone technology for so long.

    The MP3 player was another miss, which Apple totally dominates.

    The Koreans have now taken over the television markets.

    Japan still dominates the camera market, but that is about it.

  • -2

    tmarie

    **Sony is planning a drastic restructuring under Hirai to try to return to profit, ** So the guy got a huge buyout package and was asked to step down?

    I prefer to pay up to 50% more for a legitimate product of a Japanese company and that's why I refuse to buy any product Korean. Haha! How many other Japanese have I met like this that are squandering away their money thinking j products are the best? Fine by me as I think it makes the better products (ie, non-Japanese products) cheaper.

    I will never ever buy anything Sony again after my Vaio experience. Sony used to stand for quality, now it just stands for stagnation.

  • 0

    herefornow

    I think Hirai is Sony's last hope of returning to glory again, and, for the sake of Japan, I hope he has success. Stringer did what needed to be done -- make the tough decisions to get some focus back -- but he cannot lead it forward. Even though Sony is a "multi-national" company in many regards, its day-to-day workings are still virtually 100% Japanese, and many still believe Morita's statement about never believing anything a foreigner tells you. So the resistence to real change is still strong, as is the legendary compartmentalizing there, and refusal among groups to work together and share information, as that is how they protect their jobs. So if Sony can be saved, it will start with putting a Japanese manager back at the top again and see if he can rally the troops. Just hope he has a broad enough vision of the world, and what consumers outside Japan want, to do so.

  • 1

    Fadamor

    I can remember back in the '60's when "Made in Japan" was equated to cheaply constructed items using cheap labor. Then in the 70's the small Japanese cars were just the ticket following the Arab Oil Embargo which made the American "Gas Guzzlers" so expensive to operate. By the 80's Japan's way of doing business was being studied at the same time that Japan's standard of living started approaching America's. Now Japan is the one bemoaning cheaply constructed items using cheap labor in South Korea.

    As the standard of living rises in each country, there will always be another country ready to pick up the slack for cheap labor costs. I've seen that locally. In the 15 years I've been working in this school division, the monitors made by Dell have gone from "Made in America" to "Made in Mexico", "Made in Malaysia", and currently "Made in China".

  • 1

    choiwaruoyaji

    I think Sony still makes some great products.

    Their video cameras are excellent. I love my Sony HDR-CX370v. It takes really beautiful videos, easy to use, seems quite robust, very compact... my best video camera ever.

    Their digital cameras are coming along in leaps and bounds too. Have a look at the reviews for the Sony Nex 5n... it's a phenomenal camera and looks very cool too IMHO.

    I know some people have reservations about the reliability of Sony products but my old Sony Vaio notebook has had a hell of a bashing all over South East Asia, Japan, to Europe... for several years, and it's still going strong. I recently put a new HDD in it, some more memory and upgraded to Windows 7... works very nicely.

    I'm planning to retire the old Vaio to office use only and get a new Vaio this year... the new ultrabook style Vaios look very nice...

  • 0

    Tigerta9

    Maybe well...Howard Stringer has something to do with it too. At the end of the day, there has to be some chafing or resentment by the troops for having a completely white gaijin running the place with no language ability or ties to Nippon. I think that anyone who has worked at a Japanese company in Japan could at least see how this would be possible. I remember being told by Japanese presidents running foreign companies that their rivals could only go so far because the guy leading the place is "white." At the very least I know that Stringer will not appeal to the emotion-driven, tribalistic, paternal side of a Japanese company. Face it, being an analytically driven, results focused Brit - not matter how talented you are will only get you so far in Japan. Let Hirai-san, or some similarly hybrid Japanese/West guy take over and see if things start changing, Sir Howard had his chance...

  • 0

    sccheah

    I have six video cameras - 3 Sony and 3 JVC cameras. Believe me when I say JVC cameras are much better and much more reliable than Sony cameras! My first JVC camera was a JVC GR C1 bought in 1985. It was working well until it was overtaken by advances in technology. I could not buy a new battery which is of a big size. Other than that there was no problem.

    In fact when it was brand new and I took it to Japan, I slipped and fell in Kyoto and broke the front portion of my new JVC video camera and it was still OK.

    Look at the lousy Sony video cameras. The first one lasted about 3 years before it got drum head problems. My subsequent two cameras were also Sony video cameras and both also had drum head problems, each after a year - after the 1 year warranty period. The replacement of a new drum head was very costly!

    Today, I boycott all Sony products. I would not even enter any of their sales offices in Malaysia where I live.

    So no surprise that their sales and reputation have been plummeting! It is a lousy brand.

  • -1

    tmarie

    **but my old Sony Vaio notebook has had a hell of a bashing all over South East Asia, Japan, to Europe... for several years, and it's still going strong. ** You are one of the lucky ones then. Mine last about three years and when I went to Yodobashi camera to see about it getting it fixed, I was in fine Vaio company. Seemed everyone there needing help was holding a Vaio. They wanted to charge me more than the computer was worth so I left it, bought an HP and never looked back.

  • 0

    mikesensei1

    It was obvious that Stringer was bought in to do some slashing and burning in removing the effete middle management at Sony and allow the engineers and designers to take hold of the company again,as in Moritas vision.Japanese companies often do this when some unpalatable decisions about firing and downsizing have to be made.Sony have made a lot of bad decisions along the way.Nearly everyone knew and thought that the MP3 player was the natural successor to the Walkman. Apple quickly stepped in. Sony has also had some other failures and dead end products in the past.Betamax,Aibo,3D TV. They won the DVD format war with Blue Ray,but that will soon be history as optical storage is on its way out.Look at the price of blank Blue Ray discs!!! Im still surprised that they have not developed a distinct logo for their company as much market penetration is not in an English speaking world?Many think its an American company.Perhaps the Blue Ray design, trade name and logo was a way to get away from Sony rather like Lexus with Toyota? Lets hope the aptly named VITA from the latin for vitality and energy turns things around and Stringer returns to the Green Green Grass of Home.

  • 0

    chiisaishima

    @issa1 My family has been buying Sony TVs for decades even though the price was higher than other brands. But we have switched to Samsung not because its cheaper but because its a better product. My last Sony TV only lasted 4.5 years. Japanese electronic products used to be the best but not anymore. US and Korea are churning out much better electronic products that have global appeal. I think a large part of Japanese electronic sector decline is attributed to simply complacency and arrogance developing high tech or innovative products that serves the corporate egos but does not necessary appeal to global consumers.

    Another company which I think is going on the same path as Sony is Toyota when they swift the dashboard console to the center for low-mid sedans. This maybe something cool in Japan but is a complete turnoff for me and my friends.

  • -4

    genjuro

    Sorry but OLED was first developed by the Americans and IPS panels are Japanese(Hitachi to be precise). Don't really much Korean led innovations within this area. I don't remember but I believe the first 3D panels (120Hz refresh rate) were Japanese as well.

    True. Koreans don't really innovate when they copy; if any they're just fast to market. They've been copying Japanese products for decades and often don't even bother to redesign the packaging. Not just electronics but all kinds of products. Pretty sad, actually.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah2i-H_hHQ0

  • 0

    Serrano

    Is it still a Sony?

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