Sony CEO battling Sony 'Old Guard'

[Lingyis]

KylieDog said:

NJ5 said:

A few comments on some cherry-picked parts:

The dispute centres on whether products such as televisions have become commodities, in which case, Sir Howard believes, Sony should cut its production costs and rely more on sales of software built into its gadgets. He emphasised the importance of this business in a speech at the US Consumer Electronics Show this month.

Other than gaming hardware, what other of Sony's "gadgets" can be a platform for these software sales? I can think of mobile phones and not much else. Am I forgetting something obvious?

 

Small things like music and movie devices, probably.

I take "software" as a broad term for user interface, features, connectivity etc in various devices.  After all, hardware specs and design is one thing, but without software support for GUI and all that, even the prettiest and most powerful gadget would have problem selling.  So by "selling software", I won't take it literally as Sony becoming a Microsoft or Google, but more like useful and cool applications on their cameras, camcorders, cell phones, televisions, pretty much everything.

Come to think of it, the ps3 epitomizes sony's failure in making software that has broad appeal.

Stringer brings up an interesting point that I haven't thought of.  As hardware gradually become commdities, more and more of the competition goes into the software part of things, i.e. the value-added portion is more in the software (and design, in my opinion, and less features and specs, or even reliability to a small extent).  Can Sony change its mentality from merely being a top-of-the-line hardware manufacturer?

It would be great if Sony can achieve both.  But obviously, easier said than done.