An interesting article. All in all, I'd say that it's going to be over the next five years that they will show if they're willing to cooperate internally and move ahead or let the sum of their parts wither and die off the central body. It might seem a little backward, but it isn't the consumers, technically, that mean success or failure of the company on a grander scale.

Let's take the example of Microsoft for a moment. With the market shift in PCs going on, Microsoft has been trying to find their footing in new areas and have been working their asses off to do it. The reason why? Despite the fact that Windows is still insanely dominant (I believe numbers on Windows 7 still put the OS well over a hundred million sales), the shareholders in the company were starting to get nervous and wanted to see what they were intending to make sure the future was a bright and cheery one. They haven't been able to light the world on fire and it's apparently been making their stocks waver a bit in the past year. Nervous stockholders who flee can cause some definite harm.

Sony has a worse problem in its constant losses, but that issue is still the same. Success is an insanely variable concept. The consumers need to buy, of course, and the product needs to be profitable. But there's also those stockholders that need to be satisfied in their investment. Sony is a publicly traded company, after all. These guys are people who like making money and four years of losses are no doubt starting to make them a little itchy about that cash, especially since the value has contracted to a quarter in like four years. Simply standing back and being happy with sales that are below what the investors want isn't going to make them happy when they will want results that raise that stock back up. More will flee of Sony doesn't pull out something amazing that recreates them into a market leader.

Personally, I think it'll be a rough road and Sony should be able to manage it, but they've got a lot riding on surpassing the status quo and rejoining the ranks of the elite.

Kaz has his work cut out for him. i hope all goes well.

Good points all around, and a very interested read.

Kaz is indeed gonna have a hard time MDJ.

One point hinted at in the article but found in real life is that Sony quality is not what it once was.
I have an Sony VCR that I bought at least 12 years ago that use every day. Other than a problem of "eating tape" when I review (rewind with play) for too long, there is not a problem with it (and I wonder how much of that is caused by using tape over-and-over-and-over again).

Meanwhile, two newer VCRs act up much more frequently and have had remote malfunction issues (including one remote losing buttons). Finally, the DVD player in my combo player (VCR and DVD) has to be cleaned each time or it will not read DVDs. It does not matter if the DVD is scratched from Blockbuster or just out of shrink wrap.

These decreasing quality issues are one major matter that will need to be resolved. Another is cross promotion with various units. Sony Music cannot be backing a TV show and then have that show have a game on two systems -- Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS. (The show is Victorious on Nickelodeon. While not prime viewing for most posters in here, if you are the parent of a pre-teen or early teen, you probably have seen it at least once).

Mike from Morgantown

He actually turned the gaming business around and made it profitable. 

That's not what the article says.

Ugh. The word "Sega" popped into my head when I saw the description of the issue of too many tech offerings.