Being Kaz right now must be a truly shitty existence... I do hope they manage to stay afloat and get out of these dire straits though.

I think the risk of alienating consumers who will just not buy the Sony hardware with exclusive content is much too high.. They should have tried it 8 years ago with music and 4 years ago with film.. They are just too late..I also don't think Sony Music could survive if they would suddenly pull out of iTunes.. The loss of revenue would be immense..

I have a strange feeling I've talked about this somewhere else....

You're assuming way too many things. Proprietary formats aren't necessary to have synergy. Yes, Sony has taken that strategy, but we have no idea if they intend to discontinue it, or not. I believe that they will not, given how Sony is now using the android and seem like they're going to be abandoning the cell processor.

I agree with your sentiments that selling their content would be a very bad Idea, as is leveraging it for just their hardware, thing is I don't see where they were trying to do that in the first place really

Sony hardware doesn't sell enough for them to even want to do that as far as reality is concerned and I think they know that, far too many products that just aren't mass market

the way I figure it, Sony keeps it's premium market niche hardware, as long as they cut down massively on how many of these they make and keep realistic expectations, profiting on these ventures shouldn't be that difficult. But that raises the issue that given the size of Sony small margins on niche hardware isn't enough to survive really, and that's where their world leading content comes in to the picture. That they would offer to everyone, especially those products that ARE mass market.

Something that I'm noticing with these articles are that they always harken back to Sony of old, and I think that's the problem these people have in seeing a bright future for the company or any future for that matter. Always they talk about how Sony used to lead this and lead that, and that it'll be next to impossible for them to ever return to that era of leading... so therefor their doomed. But that Sony was a predominantly hardware company, that's the real problem, almost no one frames a future of a radically different Sony who operates radically different, where they aren't leading in hardware anymore their software most definitely  is. The problem I see is this universal perception of Sony only able to survive as a hardware company and if that was a fact they would be doomed.

The guy is suggesting selling all their software as if it isn't profitable, because Sony has to be a hardware company they can only live as a hardware company and anything else is doomed. I mean we are in a pre- "digital download only one device to rule them all" future and having a hand on software like they do is a good thing, it's just transitioning into that future is going to be rough and hard and long *no pun intended lol*

now as for stock, stock is going to fall regardless and it's only going to get worse on that front, people won't believe anything until they see results and by results I mean profit. And I don't know what they could do to change that in the short term

The quotes from that guy are terrible. DVDs? Really? An up to date example of thier current situation let alone their future, please. That and compare his complaints with his opinion on what Sony should do and I'm pretty sure we have a troll attempt. Sony needs to create real synergy by selling it's affiliates and letting them run independently?

Anyway, in the real world things are gearing up for synergy and compatible formats among Sony's products. Take thier video and music unlimited services, streaming cloud based services they are making available on multiple hardwares. What about PlayStation Suite? A market platform for apps and games that will be available on Vita, Xperia Sony phones with Android, tablets, PCs, and there are talks about PS3(but maybe PS4 first). It's a market like the Apple store and Android market. I'm sure Sony TVs will look at picking it up as well. All of this now linked to one SEN account. What we might be looking at is a huge pivotal moment for a big release to establish hardware compatibility through a software program. Suite could look at absorbing Sony's other distribution methods like the PS store and unlimited services.

I agree with the article in regards to Sony's inadequate hardware and software synergy.

And while I think limiting Sony's content exclusively to their devices would be in their best interests, it would come with its own hurdles, as kowenicki implies. And it would require the removing of significant amounts of content from other vendors.

I think it might be better for Sony to offer content via its own services on its own hardware, while still working with other content providers, as they're doing now. They seem to have a strong relationship with Google and Android, so providing Google Play support on all their devices would be nice. Though by "nice" I mean good for me, given how much I use Google Music.

I think making each device's OS more synergistic is the crucial step here, while leveraging their content is a secondary concern. Having a consistent ecosystem that spans PS3/4, PSV, DVD players, tablets, and laptops is what they should be aiming for.

I think Sony's biggest problem is that they're such a diverse company that it ends up really hurting them compared to the competition.

Take Sony losing its dominant position in the portable music player market to Apple for example. For years Sony refused to release a media player that supported MP3s due to the concerns of the music industry which they are a part of. You can see just how disastrous that decision was.by looking up old postings from angry and frustrated owners of their players. Apple of course had very innovative designs which helped immensely but they also supported MP3 and basically gave consumers what they wanted. By the time Sony relented and gave their customers what they had been asking for it was already too late as many had already left.

This isn't just an isolated case either because their older DVD players used to not support XviD and DivX. I can remember friends basically using their existing Sony DVD players as a backup and getting another cheaper brand as their main one. That lead to them becoming extremely weary of Sony players and simply buying a competitors product (usually already cheaper so the choice was made even easier) so they wouldn't somehow get screwed again.

This of course brings up another problem Sony has and that is pricing and no amount of synergy is going to fix the problem they have with the amount of manufacturing they do in Japan. Simply put it gives their competitors a price advantage which used to not be a problem when quality made up for that advantage. But now in the age of disposable electronics there are far fewer people willing to spend hundreds if not thousands more for a slight increase in quality.

Sony as a Japanese company is burdened by Japanese tradition when it comes to employees (don't get me wrong it's very admirable) but it's hard to imagine them getting rid of almost all of their Japanese manufacturing facilities and laying off tens of thousands of Japanese workers. It would be disastrous for their image in Japan and goes against their very culture. But if they want to truly compete they will have to take measures that are going to be extremely unwelcome within the company. Laying off 10,000 people Worldwide is just trying to take the least painful measures and hoping it's enough.

To fix Sony is something I would never wish on anyone. But here is the way to do it but it will require an effort and resolve that few people would have. First move all hardware manufacturing to mainland China and just keep research and development in Japan (this will be incredibly hard for them to do). Have the hardware side completely independent so that the music and motion picture sides have absolutely no influence on it.

As for the hardware they need to stop chasing the bleeding edge of technology because they can't win at this point against Samsung which has significantly more resources. Instead they need to devote far more of their efforts to innovating already established technologies. In that regard they need to take a good hard look at Apple and Nintendo and instead of simply bringing out copies of their products they need to change their company so that it works in much the same way as theirs.

I expected more info from a bloomberg article.

I can certainly stand behind your reasoning here. Sony are basically the business equivalent of a multi-purpose machine; lots of different qualities and possibilities but some or most of the functions can and will end up being somewhat half-assed. Like a modern phone, it does everything but rather poorly.