Our 2009 New Years Resolutions For Sony

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Happy New Years, everyone! 2008 has come and gone and we have seen great growth and turmoil within Sony. The worldwide economic crisis hasn’t helped either, with consumers feeling the financial crunch and purchasing less premium electronics. As the tide rises and falls, we here at Sony Insider have done our best to cover Sony news; through this mission we have developed a good sense as to what Sony needs to do to try succeed in 2009 – and beyond. We don’t think that they’ll really follow through with any of this, though.

We’re just going to put this in a bullet list format for easier consumption:

  • Stop Africa’s Playstation War – Sony is being accused of still using coltan from mines that are being run by right-wing units of the Rwandan military and other militias who use children, prisoners of war, and other individuals who are impoverished to do the mining in Africa. Coltan is used to make certain components in Sony hardware.
  • Keep Pushing The Bar With Innovative, Feature-rich Products – Our report of Sony’s upcoming Touchscreen Walkman was the most popular story we’ve ever done, and that’s for a reason. People are ready for something truly different than the iPod/iTouch, etc. Sony must capitalize on the interest of this device by introducing an application store of some sort to keep it truly competitive. Another attractive option would be to include direct access to the Playstation Video Store.
  • Speaking of the Playstation Video Store, I seriously have to commend Sony for their Store and Video Store interface. It is probably the best UI I’ve ever used to purchase and browse movies. The PlayStation Video store should be available on ALL networked Sony devices immediately that have available storage – it blows my mind that it isn’t. Wouldn’t it make sense for your Walkman, Vaio, Home Server, etc to have direct access to the same interface? This needs to be called the Sony Video Store. Give it a brand name, not a sub-brand name. This interface is ready for prime time ASAP.Sony also needs to make sure all movies have a preview though to encourage spontaneous purchases.
  • Sony needs to hire Stan and I to continue building the strategic bridge between Sony and the consumer at a low cost. What really burned me was when Sony announced they are making a community and blog that seems almost identical to Sony Insider. It was a big insult. Make Sony Insider official, give us a decent budget, and we’ll blow the top off the conventional definition of marketing with great results.
  • Provide firmware updates for more products. Sony is doing a much better job, especially with the Playstation 3, but there are still many products that could use some firmware updates.
  • Keep hyping products with countdowns, teaser images, and other media like you’ve done with the Vaio P(ocket). It’s incredibly effective.

Feel free to add your recommendations!

Some additional notes from Stan:

I thought I would chime in and add a couple more things for Sony to take heed to:

1. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing (mostly talking about the US), make smart, mind blowing commercials, promote Sony brand on major networks, not just ESPN and its PlayStation marriage. Bring back your commercials that end with IT’S A SONY statement. I don’t think ads in magazines do its justice, visual stuff works!

2. Bring on the networked products, I know those are in the works, but I believe the time is right and Sony products need to be able to “speak” to one another with ease.

3. Where are the HDD recorders? Sony’s famous DHG-HDD250/500 were so popular and since 2005 Sony has not released a single HDD recorder (except in Japan of course). Now that HDTV is widely available, Sony needs to jump on this opportunity with an attractive (design-wise) offering to be able to record 1 TB or more of HD content and also burn it on Blu-ray (I know I know DRM and all that… do your magic though…Sony Japan released a few of those a while ago…). People are ready for it and want it (just check AVS threads), don’t let the cable/satellite companies steal the target population with their ugly boxes.

4. Please make your software match your wonderfully made hardware. Software division always suffered at Sony (VAIO apps need some coolness added, Sony Ericsson needs sleak and intuitive GUI, I could go on and on with other examples…).

5. We need a revolutionary product release that blows the minds of the consumer. Recently we have not seen any breakthroughs, just little achievements here and there. We know you got something cooking, bring it on. Financial crisis nowadays may scare you, but like Rick Clancy said once you need to look for opportunities even in hard times, so take a risk!

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01
Jan 2009
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
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Opinion

DISCUSSION 15 Comments
  • http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com stopthewarinnorthkivu

    Hi,
    thanks for putting Congo in the number 1 place of ranking of things to do for Sony in 2009. I DEFINITELY agree.
    All the best,

    an humanitarian worker in Goma, DRC

    http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php

  • http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com stopthewarinnorthkivu

    Hi,
    thanks for putting Congo in the number 1 place of ranking of things to do for Sony in 2009. I DEFINITELY agree.
    All the best,

    an humanitarian worker in Goma, DRC

    http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php

  • http://www.steveweb.eu Steve

    Happy New Year, SonyInsider team! I hope SI will become even bigger and better in 2009.

  • http://www.steveweb.eu Steve

    Happy New Year, SonyInsider team! I hope SI will become even bigger and better in 2009.

  • Anthony O’Brien

    Let’s hope they WILL listen! !

  • Anthony O’Brien

    Let’s hope they WILL listen! !

  • LVK

    Happy New Year, People.
    Sony is moving in the right direction imo. Hopefully they´ll pick up some pace…
    I am looking forward for the next big Walkman update.

  • LVK

    Happy New Year, People.
    Sony is moving in the right direction imo. Hopefully they´ll pick up some pace…
    I am looking forward for the next big Walkman update.

  • doclloyd

    Good summary of what Sony needs for 2009 to be a good year. Going along with their marketing needs mentioned above, they really need to come up with catchy names for their Walkman players, particularly to differentiate the lines (noise canceling, bigger screens, etc.) Saying you have the “NWZ-A729″ isn’t all that memorable to a friend who asks what you use to listen to music.

    I’ll say it here (and on the other article about product support): MORE FIRMWARE UPGRADES, especially for their Walkman players. Sony has been great with extending the life of their PSP and PS3 hardware. Since the death of the ATRAC-based Walkmans, I’m left with gaps between my tracks, along with a couple other features cut out (playback history on the device, on the go playlists/bookmarks for example.) Why not add these to existing players and extend their usefulness instead of rebranding the players every few months? Make your players consistent so you can get into that lucrative accessories line, like Apple has done with iPods.

    Since the shutdown of the CONNECT music service, I would love to see them truly partner with another music store. If the information about the Walkman Touch device is true, maybe Sony will team up with Amazon on more than just this device. It would continue to promote the open format they are proposing.

    And more marketing (AGAIN) for all your products. People still pay attention to commercials, good print ads in public places, and so on. Good luck, Sony, you will almost always get my money for electronics, as long as they continue to be quality products. :) (Yes, some friends would call me a Sony fanboy.)

  • doclloyd

    Good summary of what Sony needs for 2009 to be a good year. Going along with their marketing needs mentioned above, they really need to come up with catchy names for their Walkman players, particularly to differentiate the lines (noise canceling, bigger screens, etc.) Saying you have the “NWZ-A729″ isn’t all that memorable to a friend who asks what you use to listen to music.

    I’ll say it here (and on the other article about product support): MORE FIRMWARE UPGRADES, especially for their Walkman players. Sony has been great with extending the life of their PSP and PS3 hardware. Since the death of the ATRAC-based Walkmans, I’m left with gaps between my tracks, along with a couple other features cut out (playback history on the device, on the go playlists/bookmarks for example.) Why not add these to existing players and extend their usefulness instead of rebranding the players every few months? Make your players consistent so you can get into that lucrative accessories line, like Apple has done with iPods.

    Since the shutdown of the CONNECT music service, I would love to see them truly partner with another music store. If the information about the Walkman Touch device is true, maybe Sony will team up with Amazon on more than just this device. It would continue to promote the open format they are proposing.

    And more marketing (AGAIN) for all your products. People still pay attention to commercials, good print ads in public places, and so on. Good luck, Sony, you will almost always get my money for electronics, as long as they continue to be quality products. :) (Yes, some friends would call me a Sony fanboy.)

  • theFanboy

    simplify product line-up.
    simplify product naming

    bring netbook in sony reader form-factor with touch screen, without physical keyboard(to slim down the product)

  • theFanboy

    simplify product line-up.
    simplify product naming

    bring netbook in sony reader form-factor with touch screen, without physical keyboard(to slim down the product)

  • http://www.galaxyhandbags.com/ Gucci Handbags

    very pretty picture.merry christmas and happy new year.wish you have a good time.

  • Habiba

    This year, I too am going will stay away from all the toxic, angry judgement that surrounds my office furniture. I hope that everyone can post thier opinions, thoughts and beliefs, without the judgement of others, who seem to believe posters to be less knowlegdeable than they, as that in itself stipulates judgement. This web site was intended for people to converse, share ideas and yes, opinions and beliefs and although those opinions will vary, others must allow for those differences. Is it possible? Anything is possible. Do I think it will happen, Let’s just say……I’m hopeful!

  • Habiba

    This year, I too am going will stay away from all the toxic, angry judgement that surrounds my office furniture. I hope that everyone can post thier opinions, thoughts and beliefs, without the judgement of others, who seem to believe posters to be less knowlegdeable than they, as that in itself stipulates judgement. This web site was intended for people to converse, share ideas and yes, opinions and beliefs and although those opinions will vary, others must allow for those differences. Is it possible? Anything is possible. Do I think it will happen, Let’s just say……I’m hopeful!