Sony's greatest strength

[Bodhesatva]

I recently pointed out what I believe is Microsoft's greatest strength: networking with other companies. With recent evidence in hand, I'd like to point out what I believe is Sony's greatest strength: company-wide integration.

I'm sure some will scoff at this (and/or point out why they think Blu-Ray was a terrible idea for the PS3), but as a general rule, I think Sony's attempts to synthesize all of their different projects is extremely savvy, and really helps them gain leverage in many situations. Let me give a recent and clear example. Examine this chain of events:

Sony includes Blu-Ray in the Playstation 3
Blu-Ray gains HD market share
Warner Brothers goes Blu Ray exclusive
Blu Ray apparently wins HD format war
Sony increases prices of stand alone Blu Ray players

In this sequence of events, they managed to win a format war, and then consequently increase the price of the players. Why would they do this? It's really an extremely savvy move, and nets them two benefits at once:

1) All standalone players earn more profit (or perhaps,, make less losses) than they were before, and have little or no effect on the HD format war, as Blu Ray's position now seems secure.
2) The bump in prices once again makes the Playstation 3 the most attractive Blu Ray player, and PS3 sales benefit.

So in other words, they managed to increase their HD format profits and increase their video game marketshare simultaneously. This is an excellent example of what Sony really knows how to do: combine all their different ventures. Another wonderful example is Singstar -- why has no one made a great Singstar competitor? It seems like such an easy thing, doesn't it? Just include songs, and put them on the 360 or Wii! Why has no one done this? Because none of the other companies have access to the enormous backlog of songs that Sony does, through the Sony record labels.

So let's go through another chain here: Sony music division drives sales of Sony Video Games division (through Singstar). Sony Video Games division drives sales of Sony movies division (through Blu Ray). All three of these, in consequence, drive sales of Sony's High Definition Bravia Televisions, as people with new HD video game systems and movie players want an HD television to go with it. Just think of how effectively these different divisions help each other.

It's all interconnected so neatly and effectively that Sony can constantly leverage one of their media chains to assist another. The Warner Bros -> Blu Ray player price hike is another extremely effective example of that, I think.