Christopher

Sorry if anyone got a spam PM. I fixed it so it shouldn't happen again.

Sir Howard Stringer does it all - he’s CEO, Chairman, and President of Sony. Not many people stretch themselves that thin, but in the following interview you will see this man holds the key to Sony’s future in his mind. He has seen the best and worst of Sony, and has ideals that will slowly revolutionize the mindset of this company. Nikkei Electronics Asia recently sat down with Stringer in a lengthy interview that we’ve copied over here for your reading enjoyment. This is a definite must-read, and probably the best interview I’ve ever read with one of the most popular figures in Sony. A lot of people are saying that this is a once-in-a-century recession, but what do you say? It is certainly the worst I’ve ever experienced, and I can’t guess how long this tough situation might continue. The economists don’t seem to have anything useful to say, because they haven’t even figured out what happened to the banks. And there’s the problem of the yen, so strong that it’s eroding the price competitiveness of Japan’s export products. Consumer electronics companies have to lower their costs or go bankrupt. There are some people who say that you should try to get out of this crisis through innovation, but the recession has slashed revenues and profits so far that innovation alone can’t work. The recession is not the only cause: products from companies in places like Korea, Taiwan and China cost less than those made in Japan. They are driving down the unit prices for products, and eroding the profitability of Japanese companies. That trend won’t change in the future, either. If a product’s price changes too much, nobody will buy it, and we can’t make any innovations unless our product is a big hit. There are a number of tough problems, such as cutting temporary employees and accelerating manufacturing outsourcing. However, the Sony management team - including myself - has to solve these problems. I am far from pessimistic, though, because a crisis is also an opportunity. I feel this is a golden opportunity for Japan’s electronics industry to regain its dynamism. For Sony, this means that it is now a lot easier for everyone to understand that our cost structures are too high, that we need to change with the rest of the world, as well as a few other points. What do you think engineers should be focusing on? Are products becoming mere commodities? Well, I think it is a lot harder to come up with a brand new product concept, like the Walkman, these days. Televisions, for example, offer more vivid colors than ever before, and you can hang them on the wall now, but you have to wonder just how much further they can evolve through that kind of hardware improvement. If you look at it from a different point of view, though, there is plenty of room for them to evolve. Children today don’t watch that much TV. Take my 16-year-old son, for example. Apart from watching some sports, he almost never watches TV with the rest of the family; instead he spends most of his at-home leisure time communicating via the social networking site, Facebook. It’s clear that customer preferences are changing, and I think this fact indicates what the next steps in TV evolution are likely to be. We’ll never recapture our customer’s hearts by merely offering better color or higher resolution. We developed brand new, absolutely incredible technology for the PlayStation 3 (PS3), but the cost was high. We’ve adopted a slightly different approach now, and are evolving the PS3 into a platform for Web services. TV development is also in a period of transition; the fact that sales volume is growing for the Apple TV, a kind of set-top box, might be evidence of an emerging trend. So you think by better understanding your customers, you’ll find a way through? We have to become a company that can open the window and say, “Look, we don’t just design technology because we love technology. We design technology because we understand that our customers are different.” We can no longer say that we’re right and our customers are wrong. We can’t build only what we want to build. Right now is an excellent opportunity for consumer electronics companies to improve their understanding of consumers. Five years ago content companies were regarded as king in our industry, but that was wrong: the customer is king. Sure, some people might say, “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” But I reached this conclusion after spending more time on the road, worldwide, than most executives. Consumers today are a lot different from how they were 20 years ago. They aren’t passive any more. The spread of the Internet has given them the power to dictate how products are used, and an increasing number of people are discovering new ways to have fun, such as by creating their own content. A diverse range of electronics will be connecting to the Internet in the near future, tapping Web-based services, and we have to think about what we need to do to make our customers - the king - like our products. I think the key to this lies in watching our customers. If a Sony employee were to ask me what a reasonable market price might be for distributing video to the home, I would tell him, “Don’t listen to me; watch our customers.” Understanding customers will also help us uncover hidden customers. The Wii from Nintendo Co Ltd of Japan is an excellent example. They didn’t develop any unique technology; they just realized that there was potential demand out there for something different from conventional games, and thought about how to satisfy different demands from different age groups. They attained results that the PS3 hasn’t; namely, generating profit from hardware sales. In your keynote speech at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), you said that open technology is important today. Is that feeling based on the needs of customers? That’s right. Customers will refuse to accept it unless the technology is open. Youth in particular really dislikes closed technologies, closed systems and the like. I think the failure of AOL LLC of the US is good evidence of this. When the Internet was just beginning to spread, AOL boosted its subscriber base by providing special services only to its customers. After a while, though, customers began rebelling, complaining that they weren’t children. Because AOL wanted to keep them locked up in a narrow portion of the immense Internet cosmos, open technology was created. Sony hasn’t taken open technology very seriously in the past. Its CONNECT music download service was a failure. It was based on OpenMG, a proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology. At the time, we thought we would make more money that way than with open technology, because we could manage the customers and their downloads. This approach, however, created a problem: customers couldn’t download music from any Websites except those that contracted with Sony. If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple Inc of the US. There was a time when it made sense to divide the market with closed technology, and monopolize a divided market, but that’s just not an effective strategy any more. In the Internet universe, there are millions of stars - millions of options that have been created through open technology. Apple’s iTunes Store uses its own proprietary DRM called FairPlay. I think this gives Sony a chance to provide something that Apple can’t. And we have to move ahead and grab that opportunity before Apple begins to provide support for other hardware and blocks us out. Understanding customers and open technologies are not the only important things. Prices should also be reasonable and reflect what customers are willing to pay. The shortcut to making this possible is through keeping an eye on costs. And a well-regarded user interface (UI) is as important as price, because it helps customers think, “This is something I’m going to use; it’s mine.” It is the customers who will tell us which UI is good, or bad. In your CES keynote speech you introduced an Internet terminal from another company, chumby industries inc of the US. Why? A number of people from the West Coast group firms were very unhappy to see me use the chumby device, and asked: “Why did the CEO of Sony demonstrate a chumby device?” However, I did this deliberately, because people shouldn’t be bound by old customs. Plus, I didn’t want to add extra cost to the presentation. I became aware of the excellence of that device when I was using it in New York. It will display things like the scores of my favorite football teams, photos, the weather and news, even if I just let it sit there. It made me realize that content distribution absolutely requires personalization. And it showed me how great it is to be able to naturally pick up the information you, as an individual user, most want to see. Customers today want to be able to freely access content via the Internet, information technology. This requirement represents a threat to our content business, and to existing frameworks for rights management. I don’t see that we have any choice, though. We have to create a sanctuary which provides customers an environment for their enjoyment. That is how we can change a threat to the content business into an opportunity. A lot of people thought Sony’s content download service was doomed, but it’s in a pretty good place right now in the form of the PlayStation Network, available to PS3 users for network gaming, video, etc. The DRM is based on Marlin, an open scheme developed by consumer electronics companies and other companies. What does all this mean? Very simply, it means that Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one. I wish the Japanese media would recognize how important this is. I also put a lot of effort into making sure that many people understand the value of what Sony is trying to do here. Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organizational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this. It looks like there will be an increasing variety of open technologies, content, services, etc, available in the future. Won’t customers be confused by the enormous variety of options available? I remember a time when I worked for a TV network. There used to be only three nationwide broadcasting networks in the US. Around the time cable TV was invented, I was at a broadcast convention, and the head of television said in a speech to those of us gathered: “Viewing audiences are satisfied with three choices. They don’t need cable and satellite TV.” I was about 40 then, and raised my hand to speak: “That’s not true,” I said. “The customer will always like choice. While it’s better for broadcasters if the world stays the same - that there will always be three networks - it’s going to change.” Four weeks later I was made an unexpected job offer. I was hired as president, replacing the man who had given the speech. If I had kept my mouth shut, I would have remained a journalist. And of course cable TV, satellite broadcasting and the like did develop, just as I’d anticipated. The relationship between Sony and its customers is changing, even if some people at Sony may not like it. We really didn’t have anything you could call a relationship back in the analog era. It was pretty simple, with the manufacturer providing products and the customer either buying them if they liked the goods, or not. The Internet and information technology have changed all that. And if we don’t adapt accordingly, we will lose our customers to the competition. Sony has begun to interact with its customers now through networked products such as the PS3, the DSC-G3 Wi-Fi digital camera and the VAIO. Now I’d say Sony is smack in the middle, between the analog and digital eras. What kinds of engineers are needed for the digital era? Maybe because of language issues or my background, people sometimes worry that I’m biased against hardware. There’s absolutely no way that’s true; and I certainly don’t want engineers to think I’m not interested in hardware. All content is useless without hardware. Conversely, though, no matter how good the hardware, it can never realize its true value without content. Both hardware and content have to be there for the customer to receive that value. This is exactly where information technology is beginning to play a pivotal role. I would like to say this to the hardware engineers: “You have done some really wonderful things, and now I want you to work together with the software engineers to create new ideas.” We have to create a fusion of engineers in the hardware, content and information technology fields. I’m not talking about technologies. Sony already has a high and growing number of young people actively involved in software design, application development. They are already increasing their communication and interaction with hardware engineers. The important thing is that engineers open-heartedly say, “I need your help,” and that they are encouraged to help each other improve their ideas. That would heighten the quality of development across the board. Engineers don’t need to change everything. All they have to do is adapt to the times. There is no need for them to discard the knowledge, skills and other resources accumulated in their past. I want them to look forward to the opportunities that adaptation offers, and to be interested in where evolution is taking us. Engineers remain the “movie stars” of the electronics industry, but the plots and stories are changing. They have to learn new lines, and give us other splendid performances. I intend to bring together the resources that Sony holds in the form of its outstanding engineers to create new products, and build a new relationship with our customers. It’s my job to make sure the employees feel how exciting this is. Management must act as salesmen, selling engineers on change. We have to explain that change is not something scary; it’s an opportunity. Surely you don’t expect all your engineers to be able to adapt to change? I don’t think Japanese engineers are too conservative. I can feel the growth in the software development groups, and in individual software engineers. Hardware groups are coming to understand embedded software much better. True, people do tend to get set in their ways as they get older. Nobody is very surprised when somebody retiring in two years says, “I’m too old. I can’t learn new things.” Does that mean the person can’t do anything any more? I don’t think so. The person can transfer wisdom, based on personal experience, to younger people, cooperating with them to achieve a fusion. Say two men, one 60 years old and the other 30 years old, are building a bridge. The older man might worry that he lacks the energy to build the bridge. But suppose the younger man says, “I’ll be the energy, I need your wisdom. You tell me how to build the bridge.” That’s what communication really is. Silicon Valley was created by people no older than 30. There are a lot of Japanese that age who need to experience the same process. It would be good for Japan. Why isn’t there a Silicon Valley in Japan? It’s because there’s a strongly established seniority system. You can disagree with me but that’s my conclusion. I don’t think that we should get rid of the older engineers. We can break down the seniority system when older and younger generations are fused. After that, we can create better products. So you feel that the veterans should transfer their knowledge to the younger engineers, and the younger engineers should freely explore new ideas? I want our engineers to see that the future is going to be even more interesting, more stimulating, then it ever has been. People are often frightened of change. It is better for engineers to say to themselves every morning, when shaving or combing their hair, “This is a new day and a new adventure; I’m not afraid of adapting to this new world.” I hope Sony engineers, electronics engineers, feel that this new adventure is worth embarking upon, that it’s really exciting. You shouldn’t get up in the morning and say, “I wish things wouldn’t change. I liked the way things used to be.” That would indeed be a waste of time. When things go wrong, like when there’s a recession, people often begin talking about “the good old days”. The past is no blueprint for the future, though; it’s just the past. Some of the Japanese press have criticized me, saying I don’t respect Sony tradition, but that certainly is not the case. The Sony tradition is not to live in the past. The Sony tradition is to embrace the innovation, skills, energy, and excitement of its people for the future. Our co-founder, Akio Morita-san, wasn’t looking at the past. He didn’t say he created a blueprint that must never change. Quite the contrary: he leveraged his abilities to adapt to the changing environment, and to discover new solutions and new customers around the world. I keep harping on the importance of adapting to the era because of my own experiences. I saw the collapse of an industry with my own eyes. When I was growing up in the United Kingdom in the 1940s, England was the biggest exporter of cars and motorcycles in the world. The US made big cars, but the UK made small-engined cars, which sold well. And the sports cars from car makers such as Jaguar, Lotus, MG, Norton, Sunbeam, Triumph, etc, used to win all the races. However, today, the British car and motorcycle industries have dwindled away. Why did the Japanese car companies succeed? Because the companies in the UK didn’t change their ways. Management and the unions argued all the time, and there was no investment in robots to rationalize production. There was no product innovation, either. To start the engine on a British motorcycle, you had to kick the starter pedal. On a Japanese motorcycle, though, you just had to turn the ignition key. The Japanese companies were able to enter the market without the hindrance of old customs and other conceptual baggage. I don’t want to say that Japan’s consumer electronics industry, including Sony, will end up in the same state as the UK car and motorcycle industries. Japan has plenty of skilled people, and I don’t think it will lose out to companies in Korea, Taiwan or China. But unless Japan begins to adapt to change, I don’t think God can promise future success. Earlier, you said that engineers should take an “I need your help” approach. This way of thinking seems key to your management style: instead of running things according to top-down decisions, you are trying to harness the power of your employees. Is this a fair assessment? A very sophisticated question. I used top-down management when I was managing the TV network, and when I was a news editor. But I adopt a different style now. I can’t pretend to be a brilliant engineer, after all. I think it is important for management at big companies to tell their employees what management doesn’t know in order to get their cooperation. I’ve done a lot of jobs that engineers haven’t, and watched people working in many different countries. I’ve been a part of so many different aspects of Sony - content, devices and so on. What I’ve felt all along is that if everyone just cooperates, we can all do a better job. The age of dictators is over; it’s time for people to share their experience. Japanese engineers are so brilliant. I felt that when I visited Tokyo recently. I had just heard the details of how bad profitability was in our TV business. I was pretty depressed. Hiroshi Yoshioka-san, who was put in charge of televisions from 2008, said he would like to take me out to dinner with some of his young people. When I got to the restaurant there were about 30 employees there, all young people of around 30 years old or so, from different divisions including TVs, personal computers and so on. They had a box full of questions they’d written. I pulled them out one at a time and answered them. We discussed a lot of the problems that Sony faces. It was the most fun I’d had in months at Sony. I’m not being political. They were really smart, and so full of energy. All I could think of was how to get them to solve Sony’s problems now, instead of waiting until they were 50. Because when they get to be 50 they won’t care as much about solving the problems. If you had been with me at that dinner, you’d agree with me that Japanese companies can again be top in the electronics industry. And these are the people who are going to make it happen. interviewed by Yasuo Tanokura, Tomohiro Otsuki View the full article

Sony is always known for not forgetting to gear up your Walkman and make some extra cash on sellling you some of the well crafted accessories. Check out some of the interesting offerings that will protect your new X Walkman and make it last a lil longer. You do want to protect its granite finish, don’t ya? Here is a cool leather case that can also serve you as a stand:

It looks like SonyStyle.com got beat by their cousin website SonyRewards.com which already posted all the specs and prices for the upcoming touchscreen Walkman. Mind you though you have to be a registered member to be able to browse the site. One of our readers (thanks TheFaze)

Engadget took the time recently to give impressions, pictorial, and video review of the touchscreen Walkman (NWZ-X1050/NWZ-X1060). The screen just oozes quality, and the general overview is pretty enticing. I have always thought that this is Sony’s best product they’ve ever offered against the iPod. It generally seems that Sony DAP’s are progressively getting better, and more open. The drag and drop functionality is super nice. Unfortunately, the model they had was a Japanese pre-production unit and they weren’t really able to show off the noise cancellation nor the web browser. The pictures and video are nice, but we will be taking a more in depth look when we recieve our review sample. Great job nonetheless, hopefully this will open some more eyes towards its quality. View the full article

It looks like the life cycle or the shelf life of Sony Rolly has come to its end, at least here in the US. SonyStyle has the white Rolly out of stock and the black one back ordered. The good news is if you are located near a SonyStyle store, go check it out to see if they have them in stock and if they do, you will be pleasantly surprised with the sale price - $99!!! Yes, that is $300 off the original price. What’s the deal Sony??? If Sony offered that amazing dancing player for that price ($99) when they first introduced it - they’d be having hard time keeping them on the shelves … but it looks like Sony’s thinking is often determined by some extra terrestrial beings as the prices at times are pretty much out of this world. Will we see another interesting idea of entertainment that pretty much kept us on the edge when Sony Rolly teased us before it was released? Time will show….let’s just hope that Sony’s decision to price it right will be in our favor. View the full article

Intel Core i7 is a family of three 45nm Intel desktop x86-64 processors, the first processors released using the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture and the successor to the Intel Core 2 family. It’s also really freaking fast. I just recently got a new computer with a Core i7 920 (2.66ghz) and it handles anything I throw at it with ease. AVCHD video rendering is so much faster and easier than ever before with a Core i7 - Pinnacle Ultimate runs as smooth as butter. Why is it so much faster than dual and quad core processors? Memory is directly connected to the processor, and it supports DDR3 Triple Channel memory. The front side bus has been replaced by the Intel QuickPath Interconnect interface. Intel also re-implemented Hyper-threading, which means each of the four cores can process up to two threads simultaneously, so the processor appears to the OS as eight CPUs - which looks rad in Task Manager. Sony needs to jump on the i7 train ASAP as it pretty much crushes even the best processor Sony currently offers, which is the Core 2 Quad Processor Q9400 in the VAIO RT Series All-in-One PC, which costs $3,999 at SonyStyle. If Sony can put a desktop model out under a $1,000 with Core i7, a mediocre graphics card, 3-6gb of RAM, and a good style it could be a true winner. Here’s hoping. View the full article

The wireless HD unit, DMX-WL1 by Sony, is two unit module consisting of a receiver and a transmitter that hit the market months ago at $799 - which has now dropped to $499 at SonyStyle. It wirelessly delivers HD video and audio from your A/V equipment, such as Blu-ray Disc players or video game consoles, to your BRAVIA HDTV or projector. The wireless video link receiver can also mount to the back of select BRAVIA HDTVs and eliminates the hassles of in-wall wiring while your A/V equipment connects directly to the transmitter.

The Sony VGP-BPL5 extended battery by Amstron is designed to replace battery part numbers VGP-BPL5 and VGP-BPS5 for the TX series and others. It’s also only about $107USD if you buy it from atbatt.com, which is a very attractive price point for those looking to make the most out of their aging laptops. Atbatt was kind enough to offer a sample to Sony Insider along with some other goodies. The company knows what they are doing, as they have over 1 million batteries and chargers in stock for immediate shipping. The easy to use Battery Select Technology allows easy access to a generous selection of rechargeable batteries for cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, power tools, ups backups and many other electronics and mobile devices. Atbatt.com is a very reputable store, and even has favorable marks on Reseller Ratings. " type="application/x-shockwave-flash">" /> I hope you enjoyed the ridiculous ending to that clip. So, the LSO-34 extended battery provides almost 80% more runtime than the standard battery - in our tests we got more than nine hours (or more) of solid use with Windows 7, lasting the better portion of the week in my uses and it instantly became my best friend at school. My friends often joked around that my laptop was pregnant - which I can most certainly say is somewhat true once you equip this onto your VAIO. It’s so big that it actually puts it on a tilt that somehow makes the laptop more comfortable to use. The laptop sorta has a handle with the extended battery, as evidenced in the second to last picture below, making it easier to carry. We just wish it didn’t weigh so much; at 2.5 pounds, it nearly weighs as much as the laptop itself! This purchase is a no-brainer to anyone who has a compatible laptop, though. You can see it here equipped to my VGN-TX651P.. Amstron laptop batteries are precision-engineered and rigorously tested for voltage, capacity, compatibility and safety to exceed original equipment manufacturer specifications. View the full article

During CES 2009, Sir Howard Stringer spoke about the “CES 7″ - seven imperatives for creating the ultimate user experience. These are seven goals for the entire Consumer Electronics industry and Sony - it’s very moving and definitely worth watching. One of my favorite quotes from this presentation is from the beginning, where Stringer states, “If you can imagine it, we make it real. A decade ago, the industry envisioned a future networked world - we made it happen. We said HD would be the future - and some doubted it - and we made it happen. We said that full wireless mobility would become widespread, and we’re making it happen. We said that Blu-ray would expand and dominate our visual horizons, and it has.” My apologies for the shaky camera work, but my arm was pretty tired at this point. We originally had this video up at Vimeo back in January (and it was deleted soon thereafter), but we have remastered and reuploaded it for your enjoyment. " type="application/x-shockwave-flash">" /> Let’s hope Sony keeps to these seven initiatives! View the full article

Here is a remastered and reuploaded video of Tom Hanks appearing at Sony’s 2009 CES Keynote with Sir Howard Stringer. Sony had the idea to show off new glasses that are currently under development in their labs - they have widescreen 16:9 (presumably HD) quality projected onto the lens. Stringer and Hanks tries them on and hilarity ensues. If you watch while Hanks has them on you can see that for a moment after the jokes he is blown away by the glasses. It’s very obvious. Sony will probably have something like this in the market within the next five years, hopefully. They may want to continue working on the frame design, however.. " type="application/x-shockwave-flash">" /> View the full article

I love SonyStyle, but I don’t go there too often to avoid temptations. It’s kinda cool running a site like this and visiting Sony’s retail store and seeing several products that you know Sony Insider announced first. I feel like the ultimate secret shopper. SonyStyle is a truly premium retail store and I’ve never had an unfavorable interaction there, but it seems like that good experiences consumers have had there aren’t really in the forefront. I recently found a blog post via Twitter that I’d love to share; a fellow named Michael Lewis and his wife were in Las Vegas for Valentines Day earlier this year and encountered a problem we’ve all probably encountered - a dead camera battery. What happens next is absolutely incredible, and probably ensures Sony has a customer for life: “For Valentines Day my wife and I spent a long weekend in Vegas. Like anyone visiting Sin City we spent time gambling, going to some great restaurants and seeing spectacular shows. On Saturday morning we got up early and spent time walking from Casino to Casino. We ended up in Caesars Palace around dinnertime and as I went to take picture with my CyberShot I realized the battery was nearly dead. I forgot the charger back in the room and didn’t have a spare battery. We had dinner reservations and would have just enough time to make it to Cirque du Soleil for the show. We had no time to make it back to the room. The good news is we were happy to find out there was a Sony Style store in the mall at Caesars. When we got to the store a representative greeted us and directed me to the batteries I needed for the camera. As I grabbed the battery the salesperson told me the bad news: the new battery would still need to be charged. Here is where service goes from good… to great. Instead of selling me a new battery, the salesperson took my current battery from the camera and charged it for me. The best part is, because it took about an hour to fully charge, she hand delivered it to us in the restaurant once it was ready to use. (Note: I did buy the extra battery to make sure this situation didn’t happen again) How cool is that? Talk about going above and beyond for a customer. An important thing to note is the sales person had no idea I was loyal towards the Sony brand or that Sony is a client. All she new is I had a Cybershot and needed help with the battery. I’m not sure if this type of service is exclusive to the Sony Store in Las Vegas but it left a lasting impression for me.” View the full article

I am very close to approaching 3-4 people about moderator positions. Please understand that the people I'm considering represent absolute knowledge of the forum and it's subject, have an excellent track record in their interactions with others, and are completely fair and unbiased in their interactions.

Eric Woudenberg has graciously spent the time to make several changes to the forum configuration that should ensure much greater stability. Thanks Eric.

Got him - sorry, I was in Myrtle Beach with limited Internet access all weekend.

I recently stumbled upon a nice flash-enabled Sony Walkman website that provides some really interesting info on current technology used Sony Walkman. Usually Sony Japan has a really cool and informative info located on their Sony Walkman portal (currently promoted as PlayYou) but for English speaking population the content also matters. Anyways, on that Walkman Portal check out the Why Walkman section as well as Walkman Heritage. Walkman X series is not listed on there however we all know it features Clear Audio Technology (Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, DSEE), so teleport yourself to learn the inside info on what makes Sony Walkman sound so good. View the full article

To my knowledge they are still manufacturing Hi-MD and regular MD discs.

Sony Electronics and the Dallas Cowboys are joining forces to deliver a unique high-definition video experience. The team’s new stadium, scheduled to open in June, will give fans a great view from every angle, with more than 3,000 Sony LCD displays throughout the luxury suites, concourses, concession areas and more, offering fans viewing options that extend beyond the action on the field. Producing and sending content to these displays will be a range of Sony HD production equipment, including studio cameras, optical camcorders and production switchers. Fans can view replays, watch interviews with players and coaches and also see content produced exclusively for the stadium’s in-house TV network, according to the team. “Our new stadium will be an entertainment destination, and more than just a great place to watch a game,” said Jerry Jones, owner and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys. “We were looking for the right company to work with on delivering an entirely new type of immersive fan experience with the latest cutting edge technology. With its consumer and professional HD technology expertise, Sony was the right brand.” Sony is being designated as the “Official HD Television” of the Dallas Cowboys. Future plans and sponsorship opportunities may also include the use of Sony consumer electronics devices such as Blu-ray Disc players or Playstation systems, to add to the level of fan excitement during games. The Sony displays will be used to show game content and other Cowboys-produced video and advertising elements. The Sony HD monitors, which range in size from 19 to 70 inches, will be connected via RS-232 interface to a Cisco IPTV network, for digital signage and other content delivery applications. The stadium’s new HD control room has a Sony MVS-8000G production switcher and BVM and LUMA® LCD displays, with Sony HDC-1450 cameras, XDCAM® HD PDW-700 camcorders, and PDW-HD1500 decks also being used. The Sony equipment will capture and produce video for playback during games on the stadium’s LED screens and the HD displays throughout the venue. “The Dallas Cowboys have a well-earned reputation for putting quality into everything they do, from the team on the field to the video material they produce,” said John Scarcella, president of Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Business Solutions Company. “Their brand and their vision of how entertainment can and should be delivered is a perfect match for our HD technology, and we’re extremely proud to be working with them on this beautiful new stadium.” View the full article

Thanks, bob.

Mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson Friday said it would cut a further 2,000 jobs after poor customer demand and destocking by distributors and retailers pushed it into a loss in the first quarter. Executives said they believe the company has a plan and the right products to turn things around, and Sony Ericsson will focus on revenue rather than market share. You can check out the full Sony Ericsson Q1 FY2009 Earnings Announcement at Sony IR or directly at Ericsson’s website. “As expected, the first quarter of this year has been extremely challenging for Sony Ericsson due to continued weak global demand. We are aligning our business to the new market reality with the aim of bringing the company back to profitability as quickly as possible,” Chief Executive Dick Komiyama said. “We are confident we have the right products and the roadmap to wow customers again,” he said. All the world’s mobile device makers have been experiencing a slump in demand as the industry faces its worst-ever year. Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest maker of mobile devices, Thursday said the demand slump helped cause its first-quarter net profit to fall 90%. However, Sony Ericsson, a joint venture of Sweden’s Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp., has been one of the worst-hit manufacturers. The company reported a €293 million ($385.9 million) net loss during the first quarter, from a €133 million profit a year earlier. Its pretax loss for the period ending March 31 was €370 million, in line with its profit warning last month when it said it expected a loss of between €340 million and €390 million. Sales slumped 36% to €1.74 billion from €2.7 billion a year earlier, as phone shipments fell to 14.5 million phones, 40% less than the 24.2 million phones shipped in the fourth quarter of last year. The average sale price was €120 compared with €121 in the fourth quarter. Its market share fell to 6% from 8% in the fourth quarter. “We lost market share in Latin America, India and Africa, as these markets moved toward low-end phones,” Vice President Anders Runevad told a conference call. “We will look to focus on the revenue side rather than on market share.” The company said the latest job cuts, from its workforce of around 10,000, will cost it €200 million, but it hopes its latest cost-cutting drive will cut operating expenses by €400 million by mid-2010. Some 2,000 workers left the company in a previous round of jobs cuts. Sony Ericsson forecasts that the global handset market for 2009 will contract at least 10% from around 1.19 billion units in 2008, in line with Nokia’s prediction Thursday. Also echoing Nokia, Sony Ericsson executives said the de-stocking has eased but that doesn’t mean the fall in consumer demand has bottomed yet. Many in the market point to Sony Ericsson’s limited number of high-end converged devices similar to those that have been so popular to consumers, such as Apple’s iPhone and Nokia’s 5800 touchscreen as the root of its woes. Although Sony Ericsson continued to blame lower demand and inventory destocking for the weak performance, Gartner said it believes that the company’s current portfolio is contributing to low-volume problems. “The ‘Idou’ device presented in Barcelona is certainly a step in the right direction for Sony Ericsson, but one cannot help but wonder if it will be too little too late, given it will only be on the market at the end of the year,” Gartner research analyst Carolina Milanesi said. Another poor quarter has some suspecting that Ericsson is looking to reduce, if not get rid of, its 50% ownership in the handset company. Sony Ericsson says both parent companies continue to support it and are even willing to inject extra funding if needed. “I think it is highly unlikely that Sony and Ericsson contribute more cash,” said West LB analyst Thomas Langer. “Giving Sony Ericsson more cash would be a big mistake because the only way out of this [poor profitability] is a closer connection to Sony. Mr. Langer said he expects that Ericsson is looking to minimize its exposure to Sony Ericsson and is aiming to offload or reduce its stake to Sony, possibly with the understanding that Ericsson contributes cash to Sony Ericsson as part of any deal. Ericsson on Friday reiterated its support for Sony Ericsson, including giving more cash if needed. From WSJ. View the full article

I know alot of you are getting upset about this, but the best thing I can say is that we are working on it.

Sony was one of the exhibitors at Display Expo held in Japan just last week and of course they showcased their OLED TVs. One of them was a prototype 21 inch OLED panel with 1366 by 768 resolution. The contrast ratio is the same as my XEL-1 which is 1000000 to 1. The design has dramatically changed and looks futuristic in a way with the stand fully integrated. I believe the same sets were displayed earlier at CES. No information was released when to expect this TV on the store shelves, but we suspect it will hit the stores at the end of Q4 of 2009 or early 2010. Check out this video, courtesy of DigiInfoNews. " type="application/x-shockwave-flash">" /> View the full article

Please make your suggestions here for new moderators. I have a few people in mind but it would be rude to not include the community in the decision process. Thanks!

We've had some problems lately. I am taking care of it and things should be much much more stable soon. Sorry about the troubles and thank you for your continued support.

Here are some pictures courtesy of AV Watch that shows Sony’s Touchscreen Walkman (NW-X1050/NW-X1060*) next to and on top of an iPod Touch (similiar size to iPhone). The iPod Touch has a case and screen protector, but the difference in screen size is pretty noticeable. Also, it sure seems like that OLED screen is really amazing, despite the fact that the iPod Touch does have a screen protector on in these pictures. I won’t get into feature comparisons (most of us here understand which device has an advantage in certain aspects), but it is definitely good to see Sony stepping up. * - aka NWZ-X1050, NWZ-X1060 Related posts: NWZ-X1050/1060 Touchscreen Walkman Lost FootageInside Apple’s iPod FactoriesNew Video Surfaces Showing A Silky Smooth Touchscreen Walkman Interface View the full article