Sony is no longer an electronics company

[PillowSmoke]

 

Sony will spin off its audio and video business as it searches for profitability

 

Sony announced last night that it's spinning off its audio and video divisions, much like it spun off its television division last year. That won't mean much right now; Sony still displayed interesting new Android-powered TVs at CES, and we're sure to see new crazy high-end Walkmans and camcorders with Sony branding from the newly independent AV division as well.

 

But the long-term reality is far more stark: after years of promising "One Sony," CEO Kaz Hirai appears to be systematically breaking the company up for sale. The VAIO PC division was sold last year and just announced its first hybrid laptops as an independent company, and Hirai told investors that he has to consider spinning off the smartphone business and possibly selling the TV business outright.

 

According to Hirai, that leaves Sony with three main businesses at its core :

 

1.Sony Pictures Entertainment, the hit-or-miss Hollywood studio that just fired Amy Pascal after being hacked to bits at the end of last year.

 

2.The PlayStation division, which has so far won the next-gen console race with the PS4 but yet to define a clear mobile strategy; PlayStation Mobile is all but ignored, and the Vita is a beautifully noble failure.

 

3.Selling image sensors to Apple for the iPhone.

 

You read that last one correctly: Sony's last closely held core electronics business is image sensors, and it's mostly because Apple uses them in the iPhone. (Sony also supplies sensors for various other high-end phones, but Samsung uses its own chips in the Galaxy S5, and no other company comes close to selling as many phones as Apple and Samsung.) If Apple decides to switch sensor suppliers — or, perhaps more likely, build its own — the third leg of that stool gets kicked right out.

 

If you're a PlayStation fan, this is kind of fun: after years of Sony neglecting gaming, former PlayStation head Hirai is ruthlessly eliminating every other division at the company. Revenge!

 

For everyone else, this is kind of depressing — Sony was among the first great consumer electronics companies, and now it's falling apart because smartphones and software completely subsumed almost every device in its catalog. Sony's phones are generally excellent now, but haven't seen nearly the kind of traction Samsung's phones have seen. Sony also made the cardinal error of trying to foist garbage software and services on people. That error is slowly being corrected; most Sony devices now run basically clean versions of Android, and Sony just killed its in-house music streaming service in favor of Spotify. But it's too little, too late: the customers Sony needs have been buying Samsung products for too long now.

 

            It is truly quite sad for a company of this size to be doing a thing like this. I've used many of their tv's in the past and they WERE pretty high quality. None of them had broken or had any sort of problems. But as the saying of the theory of evolution goes "only the most fit for their environment are able to survive." In the case of this, the times of sony have stopped, they don't seem to be appealing anymore, and many things they're doing are simply things that are done by other companies. There was a time when they were well off, but it isn't now. I do hope they survive and don't become bankrupt, they have contributed to some extent, something to technology. Maybe this is a phase in their company, where they just really just have to cut out the extra stuff, the branches in a tree. And focus on the core, the trunk, their main source of income. Possibly in the future, they'll get out of this so called "phase" and take what they have and put some time into R&D.

 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/18/8063269/sony-electronics-future-selling-off-pc-smartphone-tv

[Gofspar]

4. the console peasant division.

[-TesseracT-]

4. the console peasant division.

That was number two.

[Swndlr]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Vacsol]

Sony is fucked. 

[KamiKatze]

My first own mobilephone was a sony ericsson. Sad to see them leave.

[Merlorz]

What happend to this company.. A year ago the were one of the best..

[ManWithBeard1990]

How about the Memory Stick?

[othertomperson]

For everyone else, this is kind of depressing — Sony was among the first great consumer electronics companies, and now it's falling apart because smartphones and software completely subsumed almost every device in its catalog.

 

Nah they used to be the pinnacle of quality and made some fantastic kit, but over time their stuff cheapened until they aren't particularly discernible from any other electronics company apart from the fact that they kept their prices high. They still make some good stuff, but the brand name just doesn't carry the clout that it used to.

[hiyayhi]

BAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Can't say I feel sorry for the bastards.

[TheGosuStandard]

Doesn't Sony have a finance division as well, there was a post regarding how long it would actually take Sony to declare bankruptcy I am certain. 

[ReadyToGame]

The title should be more along the lines of: "No longer a mobile electronics company" 

 

They released many phones in the past years, especially in 2013 and 2014, they didn't sell well and that's where Sony lost A LOT of their money. They had really, really nice phones, I was even interested in buying one, but holy crap did they ever suffer.

[TechnologyGirl]

meh

every sony product i had broke 

Sony z2 screen came loose

some Sony speaker broke halfway through a song

Sony ultra book fan broke 

either sony's bad

or my lucks terrible 

[Scruffy90]

I'm surprised that theyre not making more money on imaging sensors. They have been making sensors for Nikon and Hasselblad for years now.

[deviant88]

Im happy when companies that dont innovate after they made themselves big and try rip off what they already invented, are now dying.Hopefully less console developer peasants if PS4 dies.

[Vacsol]

As an owner of an Xperia Z, I say good riddance to their mobile division.

 

I had to have my Xperia Z replaced twice within 1 1/2 years. Once was for a battery which stopped charging, the other was for a phone which died randomly and wouldn't even show an LED when I tried booting it.

On my current Xperia Z, the software is sluggish and bloated. They haven't released an update in ages and they locked the freaking bootloader so I can't even use Cyanogen to fix any of my issues. Their phones are fast for a couple months (so reviewers recommend them) then they start to become unstable and slow.

 

also, the camera fucking sucks and I'm completely disappointed that SONY would let their phones ship with such a shitty camera.

[totjup5]

Wow... Sony is really not doing well. I mean, I knew they were in rough shape, but this makes it sound like they may not even exist a few years down the road.

[Maheshvara]

Hmm, i hope they don't go bankrupt. I am a little bit of a Sony fanboy (but that won't stop me from getting the best "bang for the buck"), so i'll be somewhat sad... And if they do sell their smartphone division, it's a question if they'll keep updating their current phones...

[Maheshvara]

Also, what do you think about this @connorpiper

[Scruffy90]

Hmm, i hope they don't go bankrupt. I am a little bit of a Sony fanboy (but that won't stop me from getting the best "bang for the buck"), so i'll be somewhat sad... And if they do sell their smartphone division, it's a question if they'll keep updating their current phones...

I was a big Sony nut (every electronic in my house was Sony - basically a rule until more recently)until I got burned by the PS3 (got burned by the 360 too) and their terrible customer service.

[Scruffy90]

Wow... Sony is really not doing well. I mean, I knew they were in rough shape, but this makes it sound like they may not even exist a few years down the road.

They have had close to 10 years of over all loses and the Sony Pictures hack isn't helping either. I'm surprised this wasn't done sooner.

[Scruffy90]

As an owner of an Xperia Z, I say good riddance to their mobile division.

 

I had to have my Xperia Z replaced twice within 1 1/2 years. Once was for a battery which stopped charging, the other was for a phone which died randomly and wouldn't even show an LED when I tried booting it.

On my current Xperia Z, the software is sluggish and bloated. They haven't released an update in ages and they locked the freaking bootloader so I can't even use Cyanogen to fix any of my issues. Their phones are fast for a couple months (so reviewers recommend them) then they start to become unstable and slow.

 

also, the camera fucking sucks and I'm completely disappointed that SONY would let their phones ship with such a shitty camera.

It might be the software that sucks, but Sony makes sensors that are in almost eveyrthing low end photography, including mobile phones and DSLRs.

[Scruffy90]

meh

every sony product i had broke 

Sony z2 screen came loose

some Sony speaker broke halfway through a song

Sony ultra book fan broke 

either sony's bad

or my lucks terrible 

Depends on when you bought everything. Pre '00 Sony was awesome and at the top of their game. Post '00 has been run into the ground and made shit except for their camera sensors.

[EpicGeekonFire]

I'm surprised that theyre not making more money on imaging sensors. They have been making sensors for Nikon and Hasselblad for years now.

 

Not to mention their camera's are pretty nice. Their sensors are amazing, and their cameras are far from Nikon and Canon. I think they just did too much at a single time and didnt focus their efforts into one thing. That's why they are falling now. 

[Xsilent(X)]

That graph of the verge is bullshit!