Hirai says Sony is on track for a comeback

[Tarumon]

TV is running out of room to evolve. Thinner is tapped out, as they are, most people really dont benefit if you reduced an inch or two even. Bigger is out. As it is, the ideal room size is beyond the typical buyer's living room for the biggest TVs. Now granularity can get infinitely smaller depending on the technology, but the media requiring such small pixels is ages away. Case in point, the more hi def your computer monitor, the smaller the window screen when you play that movie or display that picture. Yes there is technology to upscale to fit...but it makes for an ugly picture.

Sony has to compete with Samsung because most TVs sold will not be 4k TVs any time soon. Sony forcing its studios to produce 4k quality movies for home is an expense they might not recoup if 4k fails to achieve economy of scale. TV is in a bloody red sea battle, it's just not pretty.

As far as normal management change goes, the incoming usually and decisively takes huge writeoffs during their first year. Blame it on the old guy for all this, and take credit for thr "improved" financial conditions. The only hurdle he does have is Sony's mountain of debt might have covenants and restrictions on what he can do. You writeoff or write down too much, your loan goes in default. So he may not have as much freedom as your typical Knight to the rescue.

Remember when IBM wisely got out of hardware business and became a service company? That was as much foresight as any big companies have demonstrated in recent memory. They chose to get out of the red sea. Sony doesn't as of now have a product line that doesnt already have competitors.

Can Sony turn this around on sheer will? I doubt it. Innovation is most likely their only savior.

Steve Jobs via Pixar, then again @ Apple repeatedly innovated. Almost miraculously..ipod, iphone, ipad, just amazing blue oceans they pioneered. Can Sony innovate and have global appeal? As a long time Sony buyer, I certainly hope so.