lunarworks
Member
Every single phone company did that back then. Every single one. It was so they, and the carriers, could sell more accessories. So annoying.
Then 3.5" jacks started appearing on phones, and everyone was amazed.
What Is Sony Now?
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Every single phone company did that back then. Every single one. It was so they, and the carriers, could sell more accessories. So annoying.
Then 3.5" jacks started appearing on phones, and everyone was amazed.
I remember in 2006 or 7 I had to buy a new tv. So I went to costco , they had a 42 inch vizio that was $800 1080p and a sony that was $1400 at 42 inch and 1080p. The sony looked better for sure , but it wasn't $600 better and now when I go to the store there are vizios that look better than some of the sony sets.
I also bought a whole sony stereo with speakers and a sub for my first car back in 2000 and the thing was a mess , the cd player died , one of the speakers died and the amp caught on fire (and it was cooled just fine sitting on top of the box with the fan unblocked
Of course then in 2009 I went to buy a video camera and got a nice cannon that used SD cards and had 32 gigs of internal storage vs the sony with no storage and used some kind of memory stick that cost double what the SD cards were going for .
So of course my choices have allways been very easy and its only been getting easier as everyone catchs or passes sony in the quality department
I also bought a whole sony stereo with speakers and a sub for my first car back in 2000 and the thing was a mess , the cd player died , one of the speakers died and the amp caught on fire (and it was cooled just fine sitting on top of the box with the fan unblocked
Of course then in 2009 I went to buy a video camera and got a nice cannon that used SD cards and had 32 gigs of internal storage vs the sony with no storage and used some kind of memory stick that cost double what the SD cards were going for .
So of course my choices have allways been very easy and its only been getting easier as everyone catchs or passes sony in the quality department
Loonz
Member
Well, back then not many brands were pushing the "walk-man" side of the phones as much as Sony. I don't mind if the random phone did this, but not putting the standard jack connector in a walk-man branded phone that you're going to use as a convenient music player was a crime.
That's too bad. Of all the Sony products I have bought, the one that is still working is the stereo rack system I bought back in 1993.
It's hard for Sony to compete with Samsung, which has ties to the highest political levels and is boosted by Korean public funds in all sorts of ways. IIRC 1/3rd of all Korean export value comes from Samsung. I wouldn't say Samsung is more efficient than Sony. It might as well be another bomb waiting to burst.
Sorry, used your post to share some thoughts. I think one of the keys is consolidation.
Arguably by whom may I ask? Samsung consistently outranks Sony TVs in just about every issue of Consumer Reports month after month. Are Consumer Reports biased towards Samsung? Sony has serious issues in just about every division save for insurance.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
I live in a college town and I don't know a single person with a Sony television. At least amongst the young people I know, Samsung is seen as a premium brand, but most know jack shit about TVs other than the size they want, the aesthetics of the set itself, and the limit of how much they will pay. The videophile market is dead.
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
Sony Bravia lineup is a winner in terms of aesthetics and performance.
As for other things Sony...The greatest problem with Sony these last years has been that they move on too quickly, abandoning their good, trustworthy hardware in favor of new lineups and leaving the old ones to slowly die with minimum to no support. That is how they kill their Walkman lineup too, bringing out new models every 16 months and then pretending that the previous generation never existed.
- Vaio laptop series - overpriced like mad when they have the looks and the horsepower, the budget range looks like shit.
(The best laptops in the world {no equivalent} they are not overpriced, they are pricey. Their is a difference, when a product is overpriced it means that the company is given you an inferior product that is not worth the price)
- Walkmans - have gotten better, but the top of the line is still horribly overpriced (X series in the last season, A series now).
(The X-series is overpriced that's for certain, but the Sound quality is among the best in the world. this new walkman should be interesting)
- Professional DSLR cameras - overpriced. As are the lenses.
(The lenses are overpriced but the camera's are not)
- Video cameras - nice, some are overpriced.
(Yes they are)
- Tablet(s) - hardware side is solid, software and pricing are fucked up.
(The tablet is overpriced simple, i agree with you. I will give them a pass since this is their first attempt at a modern tablet but i hope they do not repeat the same mistake)
- Smartphones - great hardware, fucked up prices and software lagging behind three generations.
(Up until last year SE has been abysmal with their updates, but the begining of this year has seen an overhaul in their strategy. Their smartphones [from X10 to Xperia arc] are getting great updates and frequently at that, oh and their phones are in no way overpriced, the Apple Iphone is overpriced the SEX Arc isn't)
I love Sony.
the bolded.
Although i do not doubt you, can you provide proof?
longdi
Banned
howard stringer is a loser and should just gtfo. he is been leading sony for as long as ps3 is around and he still cries about the culture, really man? he is fucking paid to clean this shit up and not whine about it. me think he wants to divert attention from his tenure failure just like his ereader and google tv.
his profitable term iirc comes from cuts and not real revenue. Those downsizing of factories and r&d is taking a toil on sony products, 2011 is a bad year for their hardware which got outclass by the competition.
his profitable term iirc comes from cuts and not real revenue. Those downsizing of factories and r&d is taking a toil on sony products, 2011 is a bad year for their hardware which got outclass by the competition.
Does the X series continue to exist? I thought the upgraded the A series to be the new top of the line and that's that.
Any more info on that red Walkman in the picture? ETA, price?
casablanca
Member
Laptops and playstation are awesome.
And i really want an HMZ-T1
And i really want an HMZ-T1
Ugh...
Sony bought and took over Aiwa. Aiwa was a good competitor to their portable music players.
Disagreed. One of the major problems for Sony from the technical side was their inability to compete on a software front or hell even care about software. Ken Kutaragi was the ultimate expression of the 'old Sony'. An engineer with a complete and total hardware fetish who did not give a single fuck about software let alone software as a service or even content. This myopia is what allowed Microsoft to bite into what was Sony's exclusive Playstation pie using the software driven Xbox Live service on the 360 and let Apple (led by Jobs, a man with as much of a hardware fetish as Kutaragi COMBINED with an obsessive software fetish to boot) take all of Sony's damn lunch with the iTunes driven iPod.[Nintex];32865318 said:
Benjamin1981
Member
Sony needs to realize that the can't compete with Samsung and LG on price and instead focus on the more high end market. Their high end Bravias like the HX92x series are the best tvs you can buy right now. But the rest of the home entertainment electronics just suck. All their bluray players, home theater systems etc just look and feel cheap. It's all plastic and fake aluminum. Leave that shit to the Koreans. Bring back the high end, Sony!
That's kinda what rocked them with the PS3s didn't it? Premium product launched as people were feeling pinched and then ECONOMIC MELTDOWN! It's a poorer world now and premium products are much more of a niche now than they were. Sony's losing money on their TV business right now after all even with their high end Bravias.
Edit: I can see there being a large premium market for TVs. After all they're a large and obvious centerpiece for the living room. I don't think the same is true nearly to the same degree for bluray players or speakers though. That stuff is invisible and needs to just work and not be ugly at first glance.
lunarworks
Member
Sony is full of "lifers", and I doubt the rigid honour-based Japanese business system would allow them all to be ejected so easily. Any future CEO that has any hope of making change is going to have to have some serious balls, and the ability to bear the backlash of laying those executives off.
So, Sony is Nokia.
Unless they have something awesome up their sleeves (like Nokia did, and sadly killed), it's all the more reason for them to partner with someone who knows what the hell they're doing.
As I said, if Sony kisses Apple's ass at the right angle with the right pressure, they could make an ideal software or services partner. Now that Jobs is gone, anything is possible, and Apple can't compete exclusively on their own forever.
But the "old sony" hasn't been present since Ohga left.
Ohga was a tech guy with a business mind, Idei was just a business man. Ever since Idei took over, shit went downhill. Engineering has always been at Sony's heart, and Idei killed it. Hell, it is widely rumored (you could even say that its been reported) that Idei never wanted Kutaragi to take over, and set him up to fail.
Its a shame really, I believe that a double team of Kutaragi and Stringer at the top would have been the best for Sony, funnily enough it would've resembled Ibuki and Morita.
Hari Seldon
Member
Yeah the only Sony product I own is a PS3. I have never seen anyone with a Sony flat screen. And when I went to buy a 32" LCD a few years ago Samsung was the leader in the reviews.
Well, the problem is that Sony still wants to be a giant corporation and potential market leader. You can't be both a high-end manufacturer and market leader.
Maybe they could spin off their high-end stuff and leave it as Sony and then rebrand their lower quality stuff into a new unit/brand.
I think it's because other countries are tanking their own currency.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2041115,00.html
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
The X-series might stop production to give way the the Z-series (Which is pictured above), here are some information on the Z-Series
Sony Z-SERIES said:
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
Come back when you have solid evidence, They lose out on price but the quality of their T.V's are awesome.
Benjamin1981
Member
At least for me Sony always stood for a quality product. It is clear that they can't compete on price and volume with the Koreans. So just get rid of all those too high priced lower - mid range line ups and just concentrate on a few very good quality products that are actually worth their asking price. If there are quality offerings, people will pay for it. At least i would, but i would never a buy a Samsung or LG product either.
I really wanted a z series laptop a couple weeks ago but that price was ridiculous, that design was so sexy. I also wanted a xperia smart phone but the Xperia arc was lacking in specs for the price, the galaxy S2 blew away sony's flagship for the same price. Samsung and LG own the tv market and in a couple weeks I'm buying a LG television.
Sony is a electronics company with no direction, playstation is the the only brand I really pay attention to. Maybe when Kaz takes over he can get things sorted.
Sony is a electronics company with no direction, playstation is the the only brand I really pay attention to. Maybe when Kaz takes over he can get things sorted.
Part of Sony's problem is that they believe there are more people like you, who are loyal to them. There aren't
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
I really hope so.
Well at least on CNET, the only category that Sony is on top of are the $3300+ range of television where it is tied in rating with a Samsung. The Samsung is also more that $2000 dollars cheaper. In almost every other category they are not even in the top 7.
Only brand that has that have a loyal following like that are apple, which many people consider the new sony.
The HX929 is the best LED/LCD TV out on the market. Even on AVSforum, its regarded better than the Sharp Elite.
I don't know. Like I said Kutaragi had a gigantic blind spot when it came to any technology that wasn't hardware. He'll never be noted as a software visionary and it's not only a software world now it's going beyond that to a software as a service world at a very rapid pace. Ken's a dinosaur in those terms.
Sony's HX929 is the best performing LED based LCD on the market. It has blacks deeper than the Kuro. Next in line is the Sharp Elite, followed by Panasonic Plasmas. The high end Sony TV's are fucking ace, just too expensive.
samus i am
Member
I have one word for describing everything Sony: Overpriced
I think I saw a 60 inch Sharp LCD for like 1000 bucks at best buy. I think most people say "fuck it, I can live without the amazing contrast and colors." And it's not like Sharp is bottom of the barrel.
Mind pointing me to where? I'm pretty sure the only place you'll see that is in the OT: HX929 thread
Seriously, it is not. As a matter of fact, in the recent Value Electronics yearly face off ... it actually did worse than many expected. I'm certainly not calling it shit (and the Elite has its own issues it needs to sort out) ... but in what metrics is it better? Elite is measurably superior in several of the most important IQ metrics.
If it gets its issues sorted out (which appear to be SW related) ... it will move past Kuro as the top TV produced (with the advantage of having tons more features, including the best 3D).
The Sharp Elite is a 5 thousand dollar TV, topping out at 10 thousand dollars for the 70 inch model.
I disagree fairly strongly -- I think part of Sony's problem is not organizational (although that's not helping either), but also sturctural. Specifically, they were always the "high end" designer, but the "high end" in most markets is far less relevant today.
Specifically, Sony is running in to the "good enough" problem. In many of the realms Sony once dominated, they are usurped by companies which produce inferior visuals and sound, but that have "good enough" visuals and sound that most consumers don't care. The original iPod had inferior sound to the CD walkmans of the time, but the sound was good enough and people liked the added benefits of more portability and customizability; the Playstation brand has declined hugely both in marketshare and in profit, despite the fact that it's the most "high end" home console, because most consumers are less interested in graphical and auditory upgrades than they are in new interfaces and game designs; the TV market has been upended by companies who make inexpensive TVs like Samsung and Vizio whose products are "good enough" for most people to not care that Sony TVs may produce slightly better visuals.
Let me summarize my point for clarity; Sony has long been a company that specializes in bringing the best visuals and audio to consumers, and while that was once hugely important, most customers don't care much anymore, because we've long since reached the point of diminishing returns. I think Sony's basic philosophy as an A/V enthusiast company is ill suited to the current market, and that this plays a greater role in their troubles than mismanagement does.
Valkyr Junkie
Member
Sony has realized a lot of these shortcomings specifically in their TV area as they've recently announced to split the group into 3 parts: outsourced panel displays, Sony displays, and next-gen R&D. Hopefully they can use this as an opportunity to streamline the number of models in each area.
Their digital imaging department has the best prospects for big time profits in the electronics division as they are becoming very dominant in that area. Hopefully they don't run into a natural disaster hat trick anytime soon.
Their digital imaging department has the best prospects for big time profits in the electronics division as they are becoming very dominant in that area. Hopefully they don't run into a natural disaster hat trick anytime soon.
Benjamin1981
Member
But Sony actually went away from producing the best in class audio and visuals and concentrated on "good enough" products. But these good enough products are priced way too high, so target consumers don't buy them and people who are willing to buy Sony gear at a high price won't because the quality isn't there anymore. Granted, in the higher end TV segment there is. In others segments not so much.
My issue with Sony, aside from gaming is-
Where is the value in the product?
If its a best in class audiophile MP3 player, the Cowon S9 is cheaper, and better-
If its a best in class television, the thing is priced into the realm of absurd-
If its a decent laptop, the bastard is 500 dollars more than the HP next to it-
Where is the value in the product?
If its a best in class audiophile MP3 player, the Cowon S9 is cheaper, and better-
If its a best in class television, the thing is priced into the realm of absurd-
If its a decent laptop, the bastard is 500 dollars more than the HP next to it-
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