Sony Gets Real, Defines Business Strategy For 2010 And Beyond

Under the leadership of its new executive management team established in April of this year, Sony has reformed its organizational structure in order to bolster profitability and transform its operations, with the aim of accelerating innovation and growth and optimizing business processes, particularly within its electronics and networked service businesses. As a result, approximately 80% of Sony’s targeted 330 billion yen (3.7 billion USD) of group-wide cost reductions for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2010 compared to the previous fiscal year have been achieved in the first half of the current fiscal year. Furthermore, Sony is now positioned to launch a succession of competitive products from the end of this calendar year and into 2010.

This also means that Sony is becoming a quicker, leaner organization which is more responsive to the market. They have promised that they will no longer develop products based on underlying technologies, but rather focus on the user experience. Please keep an eye out for some exciting developments we’ve spotted in this presentation in future posts. In this blog post, I will simply outline their goals.

In order to permit further growth and continue to enhance profitability, Sony is implementing additional transformation measures centering on the following four initiatives:

- Target consistent profitability in core hardware businesses (TV, game and digital imaging)
- Provide new user experiences integrating innovative hardware, software and services
- Reach out to new customers and develop new geographic markets
- Increase Sony’s focus on environmentally conscious products and processes

Through these measures, Sony targets an annual 5% operating income margin and a 10% return on equity by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

Details of these initiatives are as follows:

Target consistent profitability in core hardware businesses (TV, game and digital imaging)

Regain the leading market position in LCD TV business
• Target returning the LCD TV business to profitability in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 and achieving a 20% worldwide market share on a unit basis in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.
• Create a new revenue model beyond conventional TV business models.
- Introduce “Evolving” TV that delivers new applications over the network.
- Develop new generation displays using proprietary Sony devices.

Strengthen profitability of game business
• Target returning to profitability in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.
• Increase revenues by expanding hardware/software sales and enrichment of PlayStation®Network services.
• Improve profitability in the game business by cost reduction and other measures.

Maintain leading position as the number one digital imaging brand in the world
• Strengthen business through outstanding product differentiation and cost competitiveness based on key devices such as image sensors and imaging engines.

Provide new user experiences integrating innovative hardware, software and services

Network-connected products and services
• Further expand Sony’s networked service business by utilizing the rapidly growing PlayStation®Network services (over 33 million registered account users as of November 16, 2009) and by integrating attractive hardware, including new mobile products and other consumer electronics, with networked services. Target annual revenues of 300 billion yen from networked service business by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.
• Strengthen and expand networked mobile business.
- Strengthen collaboration with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.
- Accelerate rollout of e-book (hardware and content) business.
• Expand Sony’s lineup of network-connected products. Target installed user base of 350 million units by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

Expand 3D-related product businesses in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011
• Engage Sony’s group-wide assets from content production to display devices and game to make available a wide variety of attractive content and hardware, and drive the creation of new 3D markets.
• Launch 3D-related products for the home, including TV, Blu-ray DiscTM players/recorders and 3D gaming on PlayStation3 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.
• Provide solutions for 3D content production, distribution and theatrical projection to lead the field in broadcast and professional businesses.
• Target revenue from 3D-related products of more than 1 trillion yen (excluding content) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

Growth strategies for lithium-ion battery business
• Secure high profitability in existing businesses.
• Analyze possible entry into new business domains (storage/e-Vehicle battery).

Reach out to new customers and develop new geographic markets

• Strengthen direct marketing strategies.
• Promote Sony Group’s unified brand message “make.believe” globally.
• Continue to invest in emerging markets, including BRIC countries, to develop new customer bases.

Increase Sony’s focus on environmentally conscious products and processes

• Target absolute 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from Sony Group sites in CO2 emissions by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, compared to the level of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001*.
• Target 30% reduction of power consumption per product by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, compared to the level of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009*.
• Target zero environmental footprint throughout the lifecycle of Sony’s products and business activities as long-term goal.

SonyStyle And AT&T Hook Up To Offer Cell Phone Service And Sony Ericsson Phones

Customers at Sony Style stores nationwide can now shop wireless voice and data services from AT&T, plus authorized Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Combining the complete Sony Style experience with mobile phone service for the first time, shoppers will now be able to choose and activate wireless voice and data services from AT&T when purchasing a Sony Ericsson C905a or W518a mobile phone at any of the 44 Sony Style stores nationwide.

The initial selection includes the Sony Ericsson C905a offering an 8.1 MP camera with advanced camera features and aGPS with geo-tagging capabilities, and the Sony Ericsson W518a with fun music features and an integrated Facebook application. Just in time for the holidays, when shoppers purchase one of the offered Sony Ericsson mobile phones with an eligible two-year AT&T wireless service agreement, they will also receive three free accessories, compliments of Sony Style.

Customers can take advantage of this agreement at any Sony Style store across the nation beginning Nov. 19, 2009; activation is not currently available online. To find the closest Sony Style store, please visit www.sonystyle.com.

Sony’s Daily Edition Reader Available for Pre-Orders

Yay! First Sony’s 3G enabled reader (PRS-900BC) is finally unlocked for readership to open up their wallets and pre-order 7″ Touch enabled reader. First shipments should start in the middle of next month, get your order in, so you could get your mittens on one soon. Pricewise this Reader is a little bit “immoderate” however since you are getting 3G access for free, we will let it slip…

P.S. As of right now, Notify button is there instead of Pre-Order…I am sure it will be changed soon.

Check out the full press release below:

SAN DIEGO – November 18, 2009 Delivering on its promise to give consumers a variety of choices, Sony today announced its newest addition to the Sony Reader Family — the Reader Daily Edition™ — is now available for pre-order on SonyStyle.com. The Reader Daily Edition, a highly-anticipated wireless model with 3G connectivity, will ship next month.

The Reader Daily Edition joins the Reader Pocket Edition™ and Reader Touch Edition™ to round out Sony’s complete family of digital readers. The Reader Daily Edition gives consumers wireless access to Sony’s eBookstore from most of the U.S., via a 3G mobile broadband network. Book lovers will be able to browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers and magazines on the go. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB. Sony will announce newspaper and magazine content providers within the next month.

The Reader Daily Edition features a responsive, menu-driven, seven-inch touch screen panel that enables quick, intuitive navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen. Users can take handwritten notes with the stylus pen or type with the virtual keyboard. All notes can be exported and printed out for easy reference. The Reader Touch Edition includes an onboard Oxford American English Dictionary that allows you to look up a word by simply tapping on it.

Sony Silently Releases Muteki/MHC-GZR33i Shelf Stereo With 7 Inch LCD, DVD Playback, iPod Dock

I originally had a hot tip on a dark colored Sony mini stereo system that was quite impressive and headed for Europe, sporting a 3 disc DVD changer and a 7 inch LCD screen. I didn’t have a price, but I had a model name – the MHC-GZR33i. I then looked at SonyStyle USA and noticed that this product already existed, and is called the Muteki Shelf System LBT-LCD7Di. The US version has a tang orange color scheme on the speakers and light while the European version is more subdued and in tune with Sony Design. Oddly enough, I have seen little to zero coverage about its debut. However, what’s really crazy is that the product is available at a ton of stores. Let’s talk about the US version first:

Fusing a 7″ LCD screen, 3-disc DVD/CD player and an iPod (including iPod Touch and iPhone) dock, this Muteki shelf system is an extremely diverse offering from Sony that is sold at $499, but can be found for nearly $75 less already. In addition to 360 total watts (180W x 2) with GROOVE and Z-GROOVE (lol) bass boost, this Muteki system comes with a karaoke feature that allows you to sing along to your favorite tunes. Plus, you can play your iPod video, DVD or view a photo slide show. The tiny screen is nice, and if you want to show video on a bigger screen it has composite video output.

Other I/O include digital audio output, headphone, and analog in. You can play music (MP3) or video from CD’s, DVD’s, iPod, and USB. Put a single DVD disc with a bunch of MP3′s and your sitting pretty. Overall codec support includes MP3, WMA, AAC, and DivX. Did we mention it reads many Walkmans easily because they appear as mass storage devices? It also has the ability to listen to the radio or record and playback from the USB port. More specifications are available at SonyStyle.

So, the European version is essentially the same but looks much better in my eyes and is called the MHC-GZR33i – it hasn’t shown up anywhere yet but it will soon. I don’t have details on the price, but at $499 in the USA, I’m sure you can use your imagination. The only comparable system being sold in Europe right now by Sony (although that will change when this arrives soon) is the similarly named MHC-GTZ3i, which has less features.

This information is a Sony Insider exclusive, brought to you here first.

Sony Gulf Offers Unique Opportunity For Children At FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup In Dubai

Sony Gulf announced that 16 school children from Dubai had a unique opportunity to walk the same pitch with their football idols as official flag bearers, carrying the FIFA flag for the 2009 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Dubai. Selected through the Sony Dubai Schools Football League, children from the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades were chosen from 22 schools through essay competitions and other in-house competitions for the program. The selected students have undergone extensive training to prepare themselves as flag bearers for the tournament which kicked off yesterday.

Osamu Miura, Managing Director of Sony Gulf, said: “Football is certainly a popular game in Dubai and young school children passionately follow the game with their own choice of icons. We are pleased to offer this incredible opportunity and engage the interested youngsters through our community initiative.”

Sony has been actively involved in the Dubai Schools Football League since 2007. By supporting the Dubai Schools Football League, Sony Gulf aims to nurture and enhance the skills of the young players and improve the overall quality of the game at the grassroots level. Sony’s agreement with FIFA makes it one of the games’ six global partners and will mark its participation in the ‘Digital Life’ category. Through this programme, Sony will exercise various rights as an official partner of over 40 FIFA events including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA Interactive World Cup.

Sony Sets Off On New Initiatives To Strengthen VAIO PC And Digital Imaging Businesses

Sony has announced a series of organizational changes designed to strengthen its PC and digital imaging businesses.

Photo courtesy of ShanieAIBO.

Effective as of April 1, 2010, Sony will transfer certain PC-related operations, including design operations, carried out by Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC (Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture) into the VAIO Business Group, the headquarters function of Sony’s PC business. Concurrently, the VAIO Business Group will be relocated to the “Nagano Business Center” of Sony, which will be newly located on the premises of Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC. Following this move, Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC, which is currently conducting design, manufacturing and related operations for Sony’s PC business, will be dedicated solely to manufacturing operations.

By centralizing all related operations of product planning, design and manufacturing for Sony’s PC business at one site, Sony aims to strengthen collaboration between each operation and establish a unified business structure that further enhances efficiency and accelerates business growth.

Photo courtesy of alan_gordon.

Operations relating to Sony’s “α” digital SLR business, which have been located at Sony’s Shin-Osaka Business Center in Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, will move to Sony’s Shinagawa Technology Center (Minato -ku, Tokyo). This move is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2010. It is designed to maximize synergies with other digital imaging business groups (including video cameras and digital still cameras) in areas such as technological and product development, with the aim of further reinforcing Sony’s “α” business and optimizing operations across Sony’s digital imaging business.

Canadian High School To Use Sony Reader Exclusively

One of the Canadian high schools – Blyth Academy is the first school in the world at this point to switch from heavy weight paper textbooks to exclusive use of the Sony Reader Touch edition in their place. I am sure a number of students of that school and their families are rejoicing of the fact that they do not need to carry a ton of weight on their backs or shoulders, as pretty much all of the content for the semester can be loaded into Sony Reader. Pretty cool I would say! I hope some day we will see more schools switching to the digital format. Check out the news release below:

TORONTO, Nov. 17 /CNW/ – Embracing the benefits of electronic reading, students at Blyth Academy are today beginning the transition from using traditional printed textbooks to digital textbooks read on the Sony(R) Reader Digital Book. Blyth Academy is the first high school in the world to announce that each student will be supplied with an e-Reader in place of printed textbooks.

From history class to political science, each student will have access to all of his or her course content using leading edge digital technology from Sony and publishers like Pearson Canada. The students will use Sony Readers that are pre-loaded with course textbooks, outlines, assignments, reference materials, background reading and personal timetables.

“My Sony Reader helps me get organized,” said Michael Tyrrell, student at Blyth Academy. “I have all my textbooks and class material on it – it’s really cool. I feel like somebody just personalised school to fit me.”

Blyth Academy selected the Sony Reader Touch(TM) Edition because it’s easy to use with intuitive touch screen navigation, and its open format provides students with access to content from numerous sources.

“We’re excited about how the Sony Reader can enhance a student’s learning experience,” says Tim Algate, Reader Product Manager with Sony Canada. “We’ll be listening to these students, using their feedback to evolve our Reader offering for education.”

The school has compiled a library of digital content from textbook publishers like Pearson and other class material and literature in digital format. Blyth will give students access to digital assets for university admission, offering everything they need to chose and apply to any university.

“The digital content we’ve acquired, coupled with the students’ Sony Readers, will dramatically improve student access to textbooks, collateral material, literature and reading in general,” said Sam Blyth, Chair, Blyth Academy. “Our student survey shows that they are twice as likely to read a book available in an e-book format as in hard copy form.”

Helping lead the way in delivering digital content for education are publishers like Pearson Canada.

“Pearson Canada is taking students beyond the four corners of the printed textbook,” said Anne-Marie Scullion, Vice President of Marketing Field Services, Pearson Canada. “Our focus is on developing flexible and adaptive content to engage students in a 21st century learning environment.”

Students will also have access to more than half a million free e-books from Google through the Sony eBook store at www.ebookstore.sony.com, as well as the e-books offered by the Toronto Public Library.

Facebook is Coming To Your PS3 This Wednesday

Hey guys and girls, I am sure you may have caught the news from last week about supposed integration of PS3 and your Facebook account (leaked picture) and this evening Sony Computer Entertainment has confirmed its entrance into social media. Though you won’t be able to get full functionality of your Facebook management (like updating your status), Sony says the first baby steps of integration will be available this Thursday Wednesday under new 3.10 firmware update. Check out video below for a walk through.

From PS3 Blog:
Hi everyone, here’s an early peek at PlayStation 3 (PS3) firmware update (v3.10). The latest update incorporates Facebook into the PS3 experience. By linking your PlayStation Network account to your Facebook account, you will have the option for the PS3 to automatically update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity. This update also enables developers to set specific criteria in their titles to publish additional game information to your News Feed. You can then check out your updates, and those of your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media favorites through the PS3’s built-in web browser.

This is just the beginning of our integration with Facebook and we are looking forward to adding new features enhancing the experience in future updates.

Additional highlights from update 3.10 include:

* The Photo category on the XMB has been revamped to make it easier to see more of your photos stored on the PS3.
* The PSN Friends List has been modified based on feedback we received after update 3.00. Additionally, you can now choose a color for your PSN ID on the XMB.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Crashing On Your PS3? Here’s How To Fix It [Updated]

I purchased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on launch day because I the hype behind this game was simply outstanding. The hype was well deserved because its the most phoenominal multiplayer fps experience I’ve encountered. The level of customization (different custom setups, killstreak unlocks, etc) and awesome little rewards like titles and callsigns have you constantly evolving your character. The game looks great on the PS3, although I wish the textures were a little more defined. Nonetheless, a strange issue started happening to me recently where the game would freeze or start freezing up during multiplayer gameplay. This would usually happen at the beginning, or even a few moments into a match. It was occuring over and over and I was getting quite concerned.

UPDATE: As of today, Activision released a 1.04 update to Modern Warfare 2 for the PS3 that fixed this issue for me. Up to this point, I had to delete my game utility data every time before I played to ensure a crash-free experience. This seems to be resolved now. If downloading 1.04 doesn’t help you, try these steps:

After Googling around, I didn’t find much until I actually went to Activision’s support site. I highlighted below in bold what fixed the issue for me.

Here is the fix they list for this issue:

This may be caused by a faulty game disc, or problems with the PlayStation 3. Check the disc for abrasions, scratches, and dust.

• Ensure the PlayStation 3 is in a cool, well ventilated place.
• Try deleting the game data. Go into the XMB menu. This is the menu that you see when you turn on your PS3. Select Game / Game Data Utility. Select the game and press the triangle button. Select Delete and then press the X button to confirm. Once this is done, reinsert the game disc in the drive. You will need to install the game data to the PS3 again. This should not affect your saved game as it is stored in a different folder.
• Try the game on another PlayStation 3.
• If none of the above resolves the issue then this may indicate a problem with your Playstation 3 and you will need to contact Playstation Consumer/Technical support at (1-800-345-SONY).
• Additional PS3 troubleshooting suggestions can be found at Sony’s support site.

I hope this helps!

ePUB Upgrade For Your PRS-500 Reader

It is very rarely I would say that a company like Sony may feel so generous and offer a firmware upgrade to a product that has been discontinued years ago. And this is pretty much what they are  offering for current owners of the US Reader PRS-500 model that captured a lot of heart’s of the reading population here in the US and prompted lots of imports to Europe and other continents because it was not available there back then. Since newer and shinier Sony Readers are happy reading this ePUB format, PRS-500 was left behind like many other older Sony products that would be so happy if were upgraded to live on. I’d love for Sony to keep up and offer new updates/developments for such products as VAIO Accessories (VAIO Digital Frame VGF-CP1 saw a new update in Japan, but left behind everywhere else…VAIO Server VGF-HS1 – same story (WHY??); Sony Entertainment Server HES-V1000 has a network and Internet ability, but has never seen the light of BD-Live Upgrade; even certain older gen Bravias, how great it would be if those Internet widgets were added to the XMB via firmware upgrade? I am sure customers would be happy enough to see Sony being proactive in this case and not forget to bring new features to their beloved products, which in its turn boost customer’s confidence in Sony as a brand.

Anyways, I am happy for current PRS-500 customers as they have an option to do just that and have a new breath of life added to the device. Sony is even offering a trade in option, if you are willing to part with your Reader and get a fresh new one, like the Touch edition! More info on this subject matter can be located here.