Weekend Insider: Do You Think Product Leaks Hurt Sony?

This weekend we ask you, the reader, if you think the product leaks we feature are detrimental to Sony or beneficial to generate buzz. In my personal opinion, I think that these product leaks are good for Sony, as their product releases really don’t have the Internet hype that most other brands do. This is because Sony releases so many products and I think its hard for the average consumer to differentiate between them, e.g. their mobile phone line, bravia models, etc. The esoteric model numbers don’t help either, as it makes it hard for consumers to remember a specific product when it is officially released. However, when a product leak occurs, it is about a specific model and suddenly it is thrown into the 15 minutes of fame category, which is sufficient enough to generate specific hype for that device.

I’ve noticed that Sony rarely pursues action when bloggers do in fact release information about Sony hardware, so they can’t be completely against it. They must realize that there is an acquired benefit and relax their iron grip accordingly.

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13
Jul 2008
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Opinion

DISCUSSION 4 Comments
  • http://www.carspyshots.net Ascariss

    As much as I would like to see future sony products to leak, the fact that when a press release is out it takes a month or 2 before the product even goes on sale, with each region around the world getting different models, which is stupid. Why did I have to get my 8 gig nwz from the states, I would have just as easily paid a bit more if it was on sale in Canada.

    Somehow apple is able to have a massive show about its new products and the next day you can buy them, perhaps sony could learn from this.

    If a product does leak and I consider to buy it, I will wait instead of acquiring anything currently on sale. But then I wait until the product is in store so I can see in person. A leak not far from launch is fine, but 6-12 months from launch could cause issues.

  • http://www.carspyshots.net Ascariss

    As much as I would like to see future sony products to leak, the fact that when a press release is out it takes a month or 2 before the product even goes on sale, with each region around the world getting different models, which is stupid. Why did I have to get my 8 gig nwz from the states, I would have just as easily paid a bit more if it was on sale in Canada.

    Somehow apple is able to have a massive show about its new products and the next day you can buy them, perhaps sony could learn from this.

    If a product does leak and I consider to buy it, I will wait instead of acquiring anything currently on sale. But then I wait until the product is in store so I can see in person. A leak not far from launch is fine, but 6-12 months from launch could cause issues.

  • pudsey456

    To my knowledge, Sony Ericsson has done apple-style launches at least once, ramping up production a month or two before announcement, so that they can say “available the next day”. I think it was the W880?

    But the practice hasn’t exactly spread to other SE handsets or Sony itself — case in point, I am pining for the X1 — plus Sony is also quite used to doing teaser campaigns.

    I don’t think the apple-style launch is better. Case in point: the boatload of iRiver PMPs announced at CES. Only three out of how many? have come out in production versions, and honestly, I’d have appraised them a lot more kindly if I never saw the prototypes. That’s because iRiver is terrible at maintaining the design through to their final prodction form, so that having a designer’s mockup hurt my perception of the bloated/diluted production units terribly. Just to nudge this paragraph back into topic, Sony suffers less of that dilution (unless you count the PSP prototype), they wouldn’t be so hurt by doing that… I guess they can and do go both ways.

    So what’s worse for us, waiting 6 months for the original iphone but being able to compute the total cost of ownership? Or waiting indefinitely for the X1, wanting one and having $750+ ready to go, but still not knowing if it’ll be within my budget? It’s a matter of waiting without knowing, or waiting with knowledge of the product you’re waiting for? Patience always wins out at the end, whether you know the details or not…

  • pudsey456

    To my knowledge, Sony Ericsson has done apple-style launches at least once, ramping up production a month or two before announcement, so that they can say “available the next day”. I think it was the W880?

    But the practice hasn’t exactly spread to other SE handsets or Sony itself — case in point, I am pining for the X1 — plus Sony is also quite used to doing teaser campaigns.

    I don’t think the apple-style launch is better. Case in point: the boatload of iRiver PMPs announced at CES. Only three out of how many? have come out in production versions, and honestly, I’d have appraised them a lot more kindly if I never saw the prototypes. That’s because iRiver is terrible at maintaining the design through to their final prodction form, so that having a designer’s mockup hurt my perception of the bloated/diluted production units terribly. Just to nudge this paragraph back into topic, Sony suffers less of that dilution (unless you count the PSP prototype), they wouldn’t be so hurt by doing that… I guess they can and do go both ways.

    So what’s worse for us, waiting 6 months for the original iphone but being able to compute the total cost of ownership? Or waiting indefinitely for the X1, wanting one and having $750+ ready to go, but still not knowing if it’ll be within my budget? It’s a matter of waiting without knowing, or waiting with knowledge of the product you’re waiting for? Patience always wins out at the end, whether you know the details or not…