I wasn’t surprised to hear that both Sony and RIM are spiraling into market irrelevancy. It’s been an inevitability since about 2009 that Sony would see declining fortunes and it’s been clear for months that RIM is near death. I’m just sad to see both of them go.
Sony is losing because it lost the popular imagination. Once upon a time, Sony build solid, popular products for the world. However, with the rise of mobile technology and the ridiculous Sony Ericsson partnership that effectively hobbled Sony in the cellphone race, Sony lost much of its cachet and could make its money in what folks would term “CE” – TVs, sound systems, and the like – leaving little else in terms of high-turnaround items with an acceptable (but not amazing) margin like laptops, phones, and media players.
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Sony issued their latest financial results today, and in a nutshell, the numbers aren’t looking good for the second quarter of the fiscal year, and they aren’t expected to improve for the fiscal as a whole either. Big S lost US$346 million in the quarter that ended on September 30, while the company reported US$397 million in profit in the same time frame last year.
Sony revised both forecasted sales and income for this year downward and now expects revenue to hit US$83 billion (minus 10% when compared to the latest forecast in June) and a full-year loss of a whopping US$1.15 billion. In June, Sony predicted US$768 million in profit for the fiscal.
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Sony Creative Software, obviously a Sony subsidiary, this morning announced the acquisition of Netblender, a six-year old company that develops a range of Blu-ray Disc creation tools.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. → Read More
Remember that 3D TV bundle that Sony announced at E3? Well, it’s finally arriving. A little later than we’d hoped, but at least it’s out in time for the holidays.
According to the Playstation Blog, the 32″ TV should be generally available on November 13th. They also answer a busload of questions about the TV, in case you were curious about the inputs, 3D glasses, and so on. → Read More
Owners of the Tablet S from Sony: listen up because your Android-powered slab of glass just became that much more fun. The PlayStation Store for PS-certified devices has officially gone live, with 10 PS1 titles available at launch.
The Store is now accessible in nine countries, the U.S. and Canada included. Sony says that most of the Tablet S-optimized titles will cost $5.99 to download. The company hasn’t mentioned anything about PS Store availability for the Tablet P, but it’ll likely take longer to optimize games for the dual-screen Sony tab.
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Truth be told, I wasn’t very impressed with what electronics makers showed at the CEATEC 2011 tech exhibition – especially because a lot of the new products were “leaked” to the Japanese press before the event started.
However, here are a total of five of the coolest innovations Japanese companies showed at CEATEC 2011 in video form, delivered from our friends at Diginfo TV (YouTube channel). All the videos were shot directly on location and are in English. → Read More
Second bad news for Sony today: Following the hack attempts at three of their networks, the company today announced [JP] that it will recall a total of 1.6 million BRAVIA LCD TV sets sold in Japan and other regions. The problem is a backlight component inside the TVs that could overheat and make the upper casing melt.
The eight TVs in question were sold after 2007. Here are the model numbers: KDL-40D3400, KDL-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000 and KDL-40X3500. → Read More
Sony is suffering from yet another hack attempt on its networks. But this time, the company seems to be better prepared, and apparently all credit card information is safe. Philip Reitinger, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer, has posted an article on the official PlayStation blog explaining the incident.
According to Reitinger, the Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment Network were affected. The company halted about 93,000 user accounts across these networks and warned users to secure log-in details via e-mail. → Read More
The launch of Sony’s new handheld console Vita in Japan is just two months away (December 17), so it’s about time big S made some official announcements regarding software prices. In a nut shell, the first batch of titles will not be sold for cheap.
To be more concrete, the prices for a total of four launch games are now fixed. → Read More
As it stands, Sony Ericsson is the 6th largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, but Sony may be looking into going it alone. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Sony is close to finalizing a buyout of Ericsson’s stake in their joint venture.
According to the usual unnamed sources, current talks are tenuous at best. That doesn’t seem to have dampened Sony CEO Howard Stringer’s mood: he reportedly wants the deal finalized as soon as possible. → Read More
Love or hate gaming, this Sony advert properly captures the very essence of video games. It’s about the experiences. It’s about the memories. Video games allow a person to, even briefly, become someone else, and enter their life and see a different world. Link, Ghost, and Gordon Freeman all become part of a gamer’s narrative with just as much consequence as Tom Sawyer or The Hardy Boys.
Sure, this particular video spot is for Sony and the Playstation 3, but it portrays the vast draw to gaming in general. Good job, Sony. You won the Internet today. → Read More
I was able to attend Metaio’s InsideAR 2011 conference last week in Munich and check out many new and updated Augmented Reality concepts at the event. Several concepts I saw at the trade show portion resonated with where consumer AR is headed and some were merely for entertainment. But pretty much everything I saw tried, in some way, to push the envelope of technical possibility. I saw some cool new AR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) from Vuzix and Sony (although Sony would not let me photograph their prototype), lots of furniture configurators, augmented textbooks, a DIY content authoring system and more. → Read More
Sony, which provides many theaters with the projectors and hardware needed to display 3D cinema, has informed those theaters that starting this spring, it will no longer provide 3D glasses for free. From now on they’ll have to foot the cost themselves — and by “they” I mean “we,” because obviously the theaters aren’t going to voluntarily pick up this extra expense. → Read More
Apart from fixing the Japan release date for the Playstation Vita (December 17) today, Sony also announced [press release in English] the handheld’s full launch line-up for its home market: a total of 28 different titles (games and applications) will be made available for early buyers of the device.
Sony also said there are a total of 100 different games being developed by companies worldwide for the Vita currently (details), but here’s the full list of which titles will be ready by the time the device launches in Japan. → Read More
iPhone docks are everywhere. iPad docks? Not so much. Sony just outed two new models that work with both and in true Sony fashion, are loaded with colorfully named proprietary technologies. → Read More
Sony is currently holding a press conference in Tokyo where the company said that the Playstation Vita, its new handheld console, will hit stores in Japan on December 17, just in time for the holidays (this decision was kind of announced last month actually). For the 3G connection, Sony partnered up with Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo and laid out 3G pricing plans for the first time, too.
Japanese Vita owners going for the 3G model will be charged 980 yen (US$13) for 20 hours of pre-paid or 4,980 yen (US$65). In the US, AT&T will be handling the 3G service for the Vita. → Read More
Competition for the iPod? Sony Japan announced [JP] the NW-Z1000 series today, their three newest Walkmans, which come with an array of flashy features. The new series was showcased for the first time during IFA in Berlin a few weeks ago, and now Sony priced and dated the devices for their home market.
The main difference between the three models is the internal memory: the NW-Z1050 (price: $364) comes with 16GB on board, while the NW-Z1060 offers 32GB for $429. The NW-Z1070 boasts 64GB and will be available for $563. → Read More
Sony finally unveiled its upcoming tablets earlier this month and at least two retailers just put the more traditional Tablet S up for pre-order. Both Amazon and Best Buy are allowing awaiting buyers to reserve their spot in line to be one of the first buyers of the latest so-called iPad killer. → Read More
Do you remember the 3D HD display specifically designed for gaming that Sony Computer Entertainment unveiled back in June at E3? It took them a while, but now big S in Japan announced [JP] the final release date for the device in its home market: November 2. For the equivalent of US$582, buyers will get the 24-inch monitor itself, an HDMI cable, and a set of 3D glasses.
A game isn’t included in the Japanese package – a separate set of (active shutter) 3D glasses will cost $78,. PSP games are displayed in full screen, while a system called SimulView allows 2 users to play 3D games on one display but to see full-screen images each. → Read More
Japan is getting yet another special edition PS3: Sony announced [press release in English] the so-called “PlayStation3 NINOKUNI magical edition” bundle pack for the local market today. In the package, buyers will find a PS3 in “magical gold” color with a pearly touch, in addition to Ni No Kuni, a fantasy RPG currently in development at Level-5.
The PS3 comes with a 160GB HDD and comes with a Dual Shock controller that’s painted like the limited edition console. → Read More
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