http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/HONSHI/20090427/169423/?P=1
[...]
"We have to become a company that can open the window and say, "Look, we don't just design technology because we love technology. We design technology because we understand that our customers are different." We can no longer say that we're right and our customers are wrong. We can't build only what we want to build."
Right now is an excellent opportunity for consumer electronics companies to improve their understanding of consumers.
[...]
Consumers today are a lot different from how they were 20 years ago. They aren't passive any more. The spread of the Internet has given them the power to dictate how products are used, and an increasing number of people are discovering new ways to have fun, such as by creating their own content.
A diverse range of electronics will be connecting to the Internet in the near future, tapping Web-based services, and we have to think about what we need to do to make our customers - the king - like our products. I think the key to this lies in watching our customers. If a Sony employee were to ask me what a reasonable market price might be for distributing video to the home, I would tell him, "Don't listen to me; watch our customers."
Understanding customers will also help us uncover hidden customers. The Wii from Nintendo Co Ltd of Japan is an excellent example. They didn't develop any unique technology; they just realized that there was potential demand out there for something different from conventional games, and thought about how to satisfy different demands from different age groups. They attained results that the PS3 hasn't; namely, generating profit from hardware sales.
[...]
Sony hasn't taken open technology very seriously in the past. Its CONNECT music download service was a failure. It was based on OpenMG, a proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology. At the time, we thought we would make more money that way than with open technology, because we could manage the customers and their downloads.
This approach, however, created a problem: customers couldn't download music from any Websites except those that contracted with Sony. If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple Inc of the US.
[...]
Understanding customers and open technologies are not the only important things. Prices should also be reasonable and reflect what customers are willing to pay. The shortcut to making this possible is through keeping an eye on costs. And a well-regarded user interface (UI) is as important as price, because it helps customers think, "This is something I'm going to use; it's mine." It is the customers who will tell us which UI is good, or bad.
[...]
Customers today want to be able to freely access content via the Internet, information technology. This requirement represents a threat to our content business, and to existing frameworks for rights management. I don't see that we have any choice, though. We have to create a sanctuary which provides customers an environment for their enjoyment.
That is how we can change a threat to the content business into an opportunity.
“A lot of people thought Sony's content download service was doomed, but it's in a pretty good place right now in the form of the PlayStation Network, available to PS3 users for network gaming, video, etc. The DRM is based on Marlin, an open scheme developed by consumer electronics companies and other companies.
“What does all this mean?” he added. “Very simply, it means that Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one.
“Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organisational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this.”
[...]
The relationship between Sony and its customers is changing, even if some people at Sony may not like it. We really didn't have anything you could call a relationship back in the analog era. It was pretty simple, with the manufacturer providing products and the customer either buying them if they liked the goods, or not. The Internet and information technology have changed all that. And if we don't adapt accordingly, we will lose our customers to the competition.
I like this guy. He seems to have good plans for the company, and he seems to understand many of the fundamental flaws behind many of Sony's past blunders. He seems to want to take a more consumer-friendly approach to the CE marketplace in the future, and he is obviously trying to instill more unity across the company, so that it shares one cohesive vision, instead of its individual branches acting independently and doing their own thing. Bringing the PlayStation Network to other platforms is a nice step to take. Possibly allowing you to access Home via your PC and things like that.
The main issue he faces is overcoming the Japanese "old guard" that rule Sony. He has great ideas, but he is struggling to gain acceptance of these ideas from the board.
Sony's various branches have a number of assets they can use to improve each other, but they rarely (if ever) work together. An example of this is Universal picking up the rights ot the God of War movie, rather than Sony Pictures.
I think that much of the restructuring Sony has gone through since the economic downturn was originally planned by Howard Stringer, though he probably planned them without the layoffs. It was just that the economic downturn finally allowed him to convince the board to make these changes. Putting things like SCE, Walkman, and Vaio in a single division is a great thing if you want these groups to begin sharing technologies. If Sony ever buys out Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson, I fully expect a new division called Sony Mobile to be placed alongside these other three as well, all under the control of Kaz Hirai. This would lead to the inevitable PSPhone, which would also be an .mp3 player, etc.
(Former) Lead Moderator
