Originally posted by Winder I expect every Japanese company to big losses this year. After the disaster they have been given some nice tax incentives by the government. Everyone will write down every possible loss they can.
I don't view Sony as a disaster right now. They are doing very well with the NEX system and while I think SLT still has some maturing to do, I think it has a bright future. EVF is the future. They are on their second generation of DSLRs and still have some work to do, but that is why they are turning out so many models so fast. They are learning and evolving. Sony is trying new things and working outside the box.
Sony is fighting off Samsung, Panasonic, & Canon and doing pretty well in some areas. They need to show more consistency with their cameras, but they are still evolving.
Sony is no more of a disaster than Panasonic or Canon, and financially they are doing a good bit better than Pentax, Olympus, Fuji, Kodak.
You are looking at Sony as a camera company, it's a tiny portion of the business for them
Sony has made their name and built the company through innovation and new product development. This is no longer so. If you want the best TV, it's not necessarily a Sony any more, at one point it was only Sony, then everyone else
Same for Camcorders and industry they pretty much invented and revolutionized
Portable Audio players - same, now almost dead and gone for them
Playstation took a massive hit recently and response was ridiculously slow to the issue
the phone part of the business just took the same hit
the movie business near bankrupted them at one point
Blu ray is still a marginal product despite a massive push
And yes they have done ok in the camera business, but mainly in the low margin arena
I spent 25 years in the business and they were huge for most of it, new products that built markets, fast response to changing paradigms, willingness to go out on a limb and develop ideas. Like Apple now (which recently became the most valuable brand in the world, a position Sony once occupied)
here's a link to the article, didn't tell me anything i didn't see or suspect already (Quite a number of people I knew at Sony left the company for other companies in the last 10 years)
Has Sony?s makeover failed? - thestar.com
they aren't going to go down the tubes by any means but i no longer view them as an industry leader, and am not sure given the sound of things there will be someone who gives the camera division the budget to win the battle with Canon (or that they have the design and engineering team in place that would help them win it)
for certain there are some nice products in the lineup (NEX is not one IMHO) and the high end glass is amazing. We'll see what happens, I'm glad they are there doing the R/D on Sensors anyway because it benefits us