YES they are but 5mpx battle sony ericsson lost to nokia n82 and new samsung phones.. they suffered from a red tint that wasn't fixed til the c905.

EDIT: people stop luring me into talking about phones i know alot from them

Do you think alot of people would buy for a price premium a TV because branded Sony ?

Sony can't do software. Its too competitive - and they don't have any form of competitive in the services.

The only reason they are doing *any*, is because they are leveraging off their hardware platforms which are popular.

Take away their phones, PSP & PS3 - and what software are they going to sell?

...

This is where Ninty & MS have their edge. MS are masters at big, complex, intertwined systems (albiet buggy ones) - and leveraging off their OS install base.

And Ninty are masters at games, as they have always been. The programming is secondary to design - but both are important, and both leverage off hardware.

...

Sony needs to focus on hardware. They need to put their prices UP, and get back to making quality devices.

20 years ago I loved to buy anything Sony. It was the best, it had more features, and it lasted forever. And I payed more for it. Its just not the same anymore - Sony have dropped, everyone else has caught up. I can now buy the same quality for half the price - why bother paying more?

But if the hardware they are doing are really becoming commodities ( it is what you have described in the last sentence ) that would harm their company.

IMO they should focus on hardware but not only on a engineering point of view, they need to find new uses for the technology that already exists ( rest in peace Yokoi ) or using new technology not to do the same thing except better but to satisfy underserved needs.

Sony was considered a disruptor at the time of the transistor and walkman, they need their old mentality.

Just my 2 cents.

This is why Sony went with Stringer in the first place. They knew he would come in and make the necessary cuts. In the past only the western divisions of Sony took the brunt of the cuts while the Japanese divisions continued to be inefficient. He doens't subscribe to the "jobs for life" mentality that has contributed to Sony's current fix. That sort of mentality has been a major factor in the Big Three US auto makes financial problems.

Now what here doesn't apply to the Videogame division?

Outside of the fact the videogae division already lost market share... and MORE money.

I never liked Trinitron, but in the old times of CRT lots of people happily paid them a lot more than the best shadow mask competitors. I only buy Sony when I feel its qualities are worth for my needs the bigger price (and if the overprice isn't excessive, my Sony DVD-R's cost a few euros more than louder competitors with convoluted update procedures, I can pay silence and easy firmware update procedures a few euros), but I guess that, although in a smaller scale than for Apple, there are many feticists of its brand.

People, Sony has never been a high quality manufacturer. It has been one of the cheap-o manufacturers, who charge more than the others alike. Sony just has been fast adopting new tech in the low cost end. And now Sony is facing problems due to increased competition in the cheap end and it's actually losing to companies that use the excact same methods as Sony did when it was growing in the market.

@Dodece: Actually i belive the reason why Stringer was hired as CEO is, that the japanese can't cut jobs from Japan, but Stringer can.

i have 1996 triniton that still works, a 2003 ps2.

so i don't agree they are cheap, just look at their vaio lcd or bravia screens.

I have to disagree so much. Sony has made great products, including some amazing TVs.