Sony in free fall

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The TV business has moved deep into commodity territory, spread as thin as can be. Consumer electronic sales are down, as focus shifts to non-Sony categories. The PlayStation is a bright spot, but just not a large enough business compared to the whole.

Tough times for an innovative firm that brought us a lot of new technologies over the years.



  • willo

    Reminds me a lot of Apple 1996. A ton of products and ideas, but no clear vision. I was recently in a Sony Store. They had a ton of product all over the place, TVs, Playstation, Mobiles, Tablets, Cameras, headphones, Blu-Rays, Sound Systems, Computers, Music CDs, Video Cameras, Docking stations, Watches etc.. Not one model per category but plenty different models of all these different categories. All pretty good, none great.

    They need to cut the number of products by 80% and instead focus on making the best products out there. Covering all bases too thin is leading them straight to decline.

  • the Ugly Truth

    ….wonder who ate (and still eating) most of Sony’s TV business these days?

    • willo

      LG? :-) LG/Samsung have feature for feature, $ for $ identical. Just a matter before there is a major revelation of price fixing in television market just like LCD a couple a few years ago.

      • the Ugly Truth

        Of course! ;P

        I wouldn’t really be surprised. LG has also tried shooting at Apple (phones) in their local market ads not too long ago.

        Recent peanut judgement against Samsung should encourage these copycat companies to continue slavishly copying features and designs.

        LG was apparently a supplier of screens for the iPad. So…it is kinda’ following the Samsung “strategy”…

    • MysteriousRacerX

      In the Amazon “best sellers, the first page of 20 sets, Samsung is 10 of those (5 Vizio, 3 LG) … not one Sony.

      That of course isn’t very scientific (Sony may have a bad deal with Amazon, who knows…), but it’s a decent range of set quality and size. Based on the product visibility in the electronics-R-us type stores, it’s Samsung again.

      Side note: sad to see Panasonic plasmas leave the market, our main set is one, so fantastic. FTR, our bedroom set is a Sony LED 55” (that has a long and interesting story, but short version: Sony did us right), and when the 3rd set goes (it’s a Toshiba RP 42”), I’ll probably go with a Vizio, or LG (kind of a mid-range model).

      • the Ugly Truth

        No different in big box stores. You may even find offers of BOGO (get a Sammy TV and get a Sammy tab for free).

        Remember Pioneer? Their Elite series was great…Sammy pretty much killed that company.

        Vizio is getting better. Sammy, unfortunately, still is the made TV in the market (mid to low end) and it can be argued that their top line ones are pretty darn good as well.

  • SockRolid

    “The TV business has moved deep into commodity territory, spread as thin as can be.”

    And despite this, some people still think Apple will release an Apple-branded “TV set.”

    Don’t hold your breath(s).

    • lucascott

      Of course they will. They are going to buy Sony’s TV division. I read it on the google, some analyst said and they are never wrong

  • DanPierce

    I think one reason for Sony’s downfall is that they are no longer just a consumer electronics company but also a content company. The content division has been hamstringing the other divisions for years. The best example of this is the Sony NW-MS7, a digital audio player released a year before the iPod. In order to get music onto you had to convert your songs to ATRAC3 file format and then “check out” songs from your desktop to your player. This was all done in the name of copyright protection.

    http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews.asp?aid=184&page=1

  • gjgustav

    Here’s how to make a hit in the TV business. Make a TV, no smart nonsense, and put at least half a dozen HDMI ports on it. That’s it! Use different quality panels to meet different price points.

    Nobody wants 3D. Nobody wants 240Hz interpolation. Nobody wants it “Internet enabled” because third parties do a better job.

    People want a good looking TV with enough inputs for their stuff.

    • willo

      I´d buy a TV like this if it was OLED 70″ 4K and had thunderbolt connection.