Gizmodo
UPDATED Today at an executive round table we went to in NYC, Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow (center) and Sony consumer sales president Jay Vandenbree (left) answered some burning questions. When is the oh-so-sexy OLED TV coming to the US? "It could be before the end of the calendar year," says Glasgow, citing a dependence on production yields that are understandably "not very good." He called the 11" $1,800 set an "expensive small TV." And what about Rolly, the wheeled music player making the rounds in Japan? "I'd like to bring that in next year." The talk wasn't just about Sony's newest toys. Glasgow and Vandenbree talked about survival in a high-def world, fighting the format war, and what it's like to compete with Apple.
Microdisplay TVs are down 70%, but the fabulously floaty 70-inch SXRD is on target for its revised (that is, delayed) early December shipdate. No price change, but my guess is that the $6,000 tag will be slashed at some point. Says Vandenbree: "As long as people shop on cost per inch, microdisplay has a home."
Will flat-panel pricing erosion be major for this holiday season? Smaller screen sizes won't see much in the way of price drops, but in the larger screen sizes, 46" and 52" in particular, there will be drops.
Is Sony concerned with BD Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players from Samsung and Panasonic? "The important thing is the features. Performance doesn't improve with 1.1," says Glasgow, adding "The important thing is what studios are doing to add capability. 1.1 is just the beginning." He confirmed that not every Blu-ray feature can be upgraded via firmware, as we knew.
The HD DVD-Blu-ray Format War: "The war is continuing to rage. We're still in the middle. There's a lot more that can be done. Let me say this: there are 170 companies [in the Blu-ray camp] against two companies [in the HD DVD camp]. I find some abnormality in that. Let's leave it at that." He looks forward to more "performance" on Blu-ray, with increased studio involvement.
The new Sony Reader will get PDF support in January.
The Reader is finding an audience among the military, among companies who want to load up manuals for employees, and among housewives. Educational publishers are still slow to see its value: "They are probably a little old fashioned—probably not the right thing to say—but they are a little slow to adapt," says Glasgow, adding that he thinks they will get on track. Sony welcomes the Amazon reader and any other competition as "publicity for the category."
On Apple's success in the laptop business: "We have different sizes, weights [than Apple], and we're using different materials," says Glasgow, welcoming Apple's sales boost and saying it doesn't affect the Vaio division's competition. "This could be the best year in the history of Vaio. We're not in this to have 40% market share, we're here to continue to innovate and use that expertise to help us in consumer electronics." He mentioned that Leopard has problems of its own, though the crowd laughed (implying Vista problems of greater severity.)
On recent better-than-expected sales in the flash-memory music and video player (aka iPod nano) market: "We can't keep them on the shelf," says Vandenbree, saying the new players did better in walk-in brick-and-mortar sales, where people can see the products. "We'll take a bite out of Apple," says Glasgow. "We learned more about what to do right. I'm more frustrated than you that it took so long."
Comments
well put on the blu-ray response.
That's it? "We have different sizes, weights, and we're using different materials"??
Oh ok, yeh, cuz I pick by laptop based solely off of size, weight, and material.
I wish he had gone more in depth with that one.
sony blows
@jawzxy: I updated with a bit more from the notes. But the gist is, he doesn't view Apple success as hurting Vaio as much as it may hurt other larger competitors.
My Vaio is going to be replaced by a Mac just like my Sony stock.
What about the PS3??? GOD DAMNIT WILL SOMEONE GIVE US AN UPDATE ON WHETHER THE PS3 WILL EVER LIVE UP TO THE SYSTEMS THAT IT CAME FROM!!!!
Fuck it. I'm getting a 360.
Oh Sony, how hath ye fallen so far...eth.
I think after reading this interview it supports my case that upper management needs to be replaced with people that are still in touch with today's technology.
After the Sony Bean flop and the PS3 were released, I was finally convinced that Sony doesn't know what it's doing anymore. The PS3 is huge - the size of a computer. No, no I don't want to hear it... it's almost 2008 and it's the size of a mid-tower computer.
It reminds me of the video game crash of the 80's. Companies didn't know what people wanted and tried to brainwash people into thinking they had to have this "awesome" product (Sony Bean = Atari 2600 Pac-Man) with what they thought was clever marketing. Instead the whole industry crashed and burned.
Sony doesn't know what it's doing anymore, and it's time for management to say goodbye and retire.
Oh and I forgot to mention... All these HD DVD players that are being released for under $199 and now just $99? HD DVD is going to win. Selling HD at that price is getting this technology into the homes of average DVD watching families.
But of course I expect that Sony will remain arrogant and clueless.
@bdkennedy1: I was also pretty surprised by the size of the PS3, considering how small the PS2 was.
I just want to see that 11 inch OLED TV up close and in person... it'd better blow me away in picture quality.
At the Cantera Mall in San Antonio, you walk passed an empty Sony Store to get to the packed Apple Store.
No kidding. I've never seen more than about 8 or 10 people in the Sony Store while the Apple Store is literally packed until closing time.
I have a love/hate relationship with Sony but still have a lot of their products. They sometimes manage to engineer brilliant products but end up screwing them up with proprietary formats, poor interfaces or crappy software.
I believe Sony can still turn things around but they need some direction...pronto.
First of all i have a mini computer and it's about the size of my PS3, NOT A MID TOWER.
Second of all I'd rather have the power supply inside the sexy PS3 box, what a bummer it would be if you had some ugly brick taking up space behind the dresser etc.
Third of all does your computer have a huge power brick hanging out the side? If you want to get technical maybe you should the "other hd console's" brick on top of it and see how it compares in size and looks. [and that's without a built in BD drive]
The design of the PS3 is quite good, no one can't say otherwise. (Looks, dependability, and functionality- BD , games etc)
I don't understand how people can make decisions of a multinational company like Sony and say "oh they should've did this". Maybe you should search for PS2 forums back in the day and find the same exact comments about the PS2 when it came out.[Which reminds me 360 really had its big hits starting a year after its launch (GeoW), however before that everyone everywhere said the same things about it."Oh MS how have you fallen", Just a little reminder]
BTW have you seen the sales? Ps2 and PS3 are about even in the same time periods since their launches. [No I'm not talking about current sales, I'm talking about the first year of PS2 and first year of PS3]
I guess it is easy so say negative things about the PS3 especially from people who already do not like Sony or is influenced by negative press. But really guys think about the big picture, the consoles, all of them, do not have a year or two's worth of life. It's more than that. The second year for PS3 will be like 360's and maybe even better, the Wii however is a monster.
ps3+linux > then the microsoft corporation.
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