[Rumori] Sony Video Chief Admits Strategic Mistakes

[Anthony Hall]

Well, it's certainly had an effect...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/01/23/ccsikl23.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/01/23/ixcoms.html

http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=1090565;s=rollingnews.htm


At 09:37 21/01/2005 -0800, you wrote:
>Well, this is satisfying news!
>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&ncid=738&e=4&u=/ap/20050121/ap_on_hi_te/japan_sony
>
>TOKYO - Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other 
>gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment 
>content, the head of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).'s 
>video-game unit acknowledged Thursday.
>
>Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said he and 
>other Sony employees have been frustrated for years with management's 
>reluctance to introduce products like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, mainly 
>because the Tokyo company had music and movie units that were worried 
>about content rights.
>
>Now, Sony's divisions are finally beginning to work together and share a 
>common agenda, Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.
>
>"It's just starting," he told reporters. "We are growing up."
>
>High-ranking Sony officials have rarely publicly said their proprietary 
>views were a mistake. Kutaragi, who has long been viewed as a candidate to 
>lead Sony, was unusually direct in acknowledging Sony had made an error 
>and blaming proprietary concerns from its entertainment division.
>
>Sony's music players initially did not support MP3 files and only played 
>Sony's own format called Atrac.
>
>Kutaragi said Sony's original spirit of innovative technology had grown 
>"diluted."
>
>"We have to concentrate on our original nature — challenging and 
>creating," he said.
>
>Once the powerhouse of global electronics, exemplified in its Walkman, 
>Sony has lost some of its glamour lately, losing out in profitability and 
>market share to cheaper Asian rivals.
>
>Kutaragi — known as the "Father of the PlayStation" for making the game 
>machine a pillar of Sony's business — said the new handheld, PSP or 
>PlayStation Portable, will grow into a global platform for enjoying music 
>and movies as well as games.
>
>Sony is boosting production to one million a month this spring to keep up 
>with demand for the PlayStation Portable, which has sold 800,000 since 
>going on sale Dec. 12 in Japan, Kutaragi said. It is set to go on sale in 
>the United States and Europe this spring.
>
>
>
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