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Howard Stringer Says Sony's So Big, It Makes Same Gadgets Twice
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 11:30 AM on October 10, 2008
In perhaps the most spirited and cheery interview I've ever seen given by Sony chair Howard Stringer, the knight of the realm tells Charlie Rose that after several years in the driver's seat, he's still trying to integrate all of the electronics divisions of Sony. "We're so big that we're making the same thing twice in different parts of the company, and nobody seems to notice!" he laughs. On a side note, I am glad to see Stringer so relaxed. I think he really was playing Chicken during the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war, and at least there's one major issue he doesn't have to worry about anymore. Now, about this economic downturn... [Charlie Rose]
In perhaps the most spirited and cheery interview I've ever seen given by Sony chair Howard Stringer, the knight of the realm tells Charlie Rose that after several years in the driver's seat, he's still trying to integrate all of the electronics divisions of Sony. "We're so big that we're making the same thing twice in different parts of the company, and nobody seems to notice!" he laughs. On a side note, I am glad to see Stringer so relaxed. I think he really was playing Chicken during the Blu-ray/HD DVD
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
pdditty
Posted 12:53 PM 10/10/08
"Oh Howard please stop! You're killing me here, you're telling me Sony is so big they make the same product twice?"
--
I really dont find that a laughing matter if I'm the bosses back in Japan. Just imagine how much waste is being added up
pdditty
livinzlife
Posted 12:34 PM 10/10/08
stop talking about this economic crap. I cant even turn on a tv without being reminded that im poor.
livinzlife
mr30gZune
Posted 1:09 PM 10/10/08
What economic turn?
mr30gZune
Sam_Zebian
Posted 1:42 PM 10/10/08
@mr30gZune: shutup McCain. The fundamentals of our economy are only strong if they work! And clearly, if you take a look at the stock market, they do not!
I'm Barrack Obama and I approve this message.
Not really
(sorry it was the perfect thing to say at the time, even though you are a fellow Zune user. It would be more fun if you used an ipod somewhere in your username)
(no we Zune owners aren't that crazy)
(or are we?)
Sam_Zebian
alohrey
Posted 2:07 PM 10/10/08
I think he was referring to making some of the same components for similar products in different locations, easy to see how this could happen with such a large company.
www.hdupdate.com
alohrey
VakeroRokero
Posted 2:28 PM 10/10/08
Sadly, his company does make the most expensive gadgets in the world. Even Apple is trying to lower prices as much as they hate doing it.
VakeroRokero
Noobs-R-Us
Posted 2:51 PM 10/10/08
Luckily he can blame the poor sales this Christmas season on the economy to save his butt. The real truth is that this year's XBR TV's are crap. They will be raped by Samsung again. At some point, someone has to take responsibility for the incompetence.
Noobs-R-Us
aquaosx
Posted 5:01 PM 10/10/08
Well, he was talking about the fact that Sony was disjointed. That's not uncommon for big old tech / gadget companies. Hell, I work for one that suffers from the same problem. Product managers in completely different divisions of the same company will come up with ideas for similar products. And it usually starts because two product managers are really just same ripping-off the same idea from someone like Apple / Google / etc.
aquaosx
dezinewiz
Posted 4:45 PM 10/10/08
I still think that a potentially number one product went to hell way to early within it's growth stage, and that was AIBO/QRIO.
I own two of the adorable little pooches, and with the improvements, they were really on to something!
Other than the Roombas (not a Sony product - ya know - the household vacuum cleaners), these cute robots were really the only affordable thing that was halfway decent to purchase. Everything else out there seems to be just a toy.
At least AIBO was on to something.
And, to not release QRIO to the public was an absolute crime. The thing spoke over 15,000 Japanese words and phrases, *conducted symphony orchestras, played baseball, and all in all, wowed the world.
This was the only hope for something that could have been of use to the world. Point being, other companies such as Honda with ASIMO, I feel, are spending their sweet time in development for way too long.
In terms of cost - that is what mass production is for, if I am not mistaken?
When this guy came in and took over Sony, the cutting edge evolution of the company stopped.
To Vakero's comment, Apple is really heading out to be the next Sony in many ways. And an absolute A+++++ to them!
So, here is my comment to Sony :
Sony, bring back your robotics team, because that was a device that was on the verge of truly integrating your electronics like you had wanted. A dvd player, a t.v., and the like are just that. Devices that do what they do, albeit exceptionally well, but not beyond that. With the robot, you have a servant that has the capability of integrating everything into a very, very intelligent product.
Why didn't AIBO do as well as you had liked? Well, where was the blanket advertising? Never saw any. At least, not on the west coast of America I didn't.
Most people had no idea the dog existed.
Come on, guys, THESE ARE BASICS!!
Get back to the drawing board - make your Sony Style stores NOT look like Best Buy, or Fry's Electronics, and step up to 2008!
_____________________________________________
*And, yes, I do realize that these were preprogrammed actions, BUT STILL! WAY TO GO QRIO TEAM!
dezinewiz
diehippiedie
Posted 6:03 PM 10/10/08
@aquaosx: yea sony's making too many junks, need to reorganize and consolidate, and get rid of that mylo nonsense.
They need to focus on fewer products and models, you know like Apple has 1 phone, 4 music players, 5 personal computers, 1 server, thats a lot easier to manage.
Maybe copy what GE did, sell some of your divisions that's not making any money (exception would be playstation of course)
diehippiedie
Charbax2
Posted 9:21 PM 10/10/08
Sony needs to make blank Blu-ray discs much cheaper then hard disk storage.
Blank Blu-ray discs are like 100x more expensive then blank DVD discs. It makes no sense to buy a Blu-ray burner.
Sony needs to enable high definition video conferencing on the PS3. And open up the Linux OS on the PS3 so people can for example use the cell processor of the PS3 to encode videos.
Charbax2
Charbax2
Posted 9:27 PM 10/10/08
Watch the full video of Howard Stringer on Charlie Rose at [video.google.com]
Charbax2
Wilson Rothman
Posted 2:21 AM 11/10/08
@Charbax2: Or at the link at the bottom of the post. (That's what it's there for!)
Wilson Rothman
Rususeruru
Posted 5:31 AM 11/10/08
@livinzlife: Guess what... we're all poor! YAY but that's ok because we can watch to guys chuckle about a company that's soo large... eh forget it.
Rususeruru