Back at E3, the gaming world let out a collective groan when Sony announced they were making a special 3D TV for the PS3. However, that groan swiftly turned into a clamor of adoration once it was explained that the TV, in addition to displaying 3D content, would also allow two players to play side by side, seeing different displays through two pairs of 3D glasses. Called SimulView, it was pretty darn cool.
Fast forward to December and the 24-inch TV has shipped and costs $499. The display has two HDMI ports and little else – you plug in a PS3 and start playing games and Blu-Ray disks. Is this PS3-branded widescreen 1080p monitor good? Definitely. But is it a necessary accessory for gamers and non-gamers alike? That remains to be seen. Read on.
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Apple’s iPad still dominates the tablet market, and it would seem that competing tab makers are realizing how tough it is to go head-to-head with Apple’s tablet. The latest proof: Sony has just slashed $100 off of the price of its Tablet S.
In other words, the 32GB Tablet S just went from $600 to $500, while the 16GB model has dropped from $500 to $400. → Read More
S-LCD Co., the joint venture for making LCDs for TVs between Sony and Samsung, will soon be history. The Japanese company today announced it will exit the 50-50 venture by selling its share to the Korean rival for US$940 million, after seven years of collaboration.
After inking a final agreement, Samsung is ready to absorb the South Korea-based joint venture into its existing LCD business and turn it into a 100% subsidiary. Samsung’s LCD business will then be the second-largest in the world by revenue, trailing only LG Display. → Read More
Sony has managed to sell a total of 321,407 PlayStation Vitas on December 17 (the day it was launched in Japan) and 18, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu is reporting [JP] today. This pretty solid number means that big S has sold about 46% of its initial shipment of Vitas (which is rumored to be around 700,000 units) in 48 hours.
The Famitsu says that back on December 12, 2004 (the day the PSP was launched), Sony sold a total of 166,074 units in 24 hours. Nintendo was able to sell a total of 371,326 3DS systems in the first 48 hours after launch in Japan on February 26 this year. → Read More
The Sony Tablet S is actually a pretty hot 9.4-inch slate, and doesn’t look like every other Android tablet out there (thank goodness). On the performance side, however, I found myself frustrated on more than one occasion. The design is everything I’ve been wanting from Android tabs, but unfortunately I just couldn’t ignore the underwhelming responsiveness of the slate. → Read More
Sony can’t get much right these days. They’ve dissolved their partnership with Ericsson so they have no dog in the mobile fight and their Blu-Ray/3D TV push is, at best, an afterthought with consumers. Nobody wants Sony laptops, what with all the ultrabooks out there. The only thing that can save them is gaming.
The first great Sony hope is the Vita, Sony’s handheld gaming console. Designed to offer a superior gaming experience over the only other portable consoles, the Nintendo DSi and 3DS, the Vita is already selling out in Japanese pre-orders and could be next year’s hot selling gadget. None of the gaming greats except for Nintendo has progressed on the hardware front in years, so the Vita might be just the jolt Sony needs to survive. → Read More
The “Other OS” controversy is one of those things that, while in a way trivial, is really a proxy battle over a much larger problem. Briefly stated, Sony upset some users by removing the ability to install another OS on their PS3, an option that allowed the powerful console to be used as a PC, media center, or pretty much anything. The removal of this option and effective outlawing of the practice caused a geeky backlash that had less to do with the inability to run a Linux box on your TV than the fact that Sony was dictating what you could do with your device after the fact.
These things get resolved in all sorts of ways, but this one ended up in a class action lawsuit that said Sony was in breach of its agreement with users. Unfortunately for the class members, the suit has been dismissed on the grounds that the behavior may have been questionable but could not be shown to be illegal. → Read More
Sony is making a big push in retail these days, as COO Phil Molyneux outlined this morning at a press conference in New York City. As he explained Sony’s retail plans to us, in that lovely British accent, one thing kept popping up in my mind: Apple.
Sony’s retail strategy, in many ways, seems to be taking cues from Apple’s in-store success over the past few years. That’s not to say that Sony is straight-up copying Apple by any means. Even in a business perspective, Sony’s focus has shifted toward products that support its media platforms, which is just what Apple does. Still, Sony seems to be following Apple’s example (whether in business or retail) in its own individual way. → Read More
The deal has been in the making for months, but today Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi made the mega merger official. The three companies signed definitive agreements with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) to integrate their small- and medium-sized display businesses.
Under the deal, semi-public INCJ will hold 70% of Japan Display, Inc., a new company that will run the operations. Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi will control 10% each when Japan Display starts its business in spring 2012. Japan Display will issue US$2.6 billion in new shares to INCJ through a third-party allocation. → Read More
In case you are planning to buy Sony’s new handheld PlayStation Vita and were wondering what will happen to your UMDs, Sony finally made an announcement [JP] today, albeit for the Japanese market only at this point. The company says it will establish a so-called UMD Passport Program to make it possible to download versions of your personal UMD games.
There is a bit of work involved, however: owners of UMD titles first have to download an app to their PSP, insert and register the disc with their PSN account and then download the game onto their Vita. → Read More
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
