Replied to: Should Sony stop making electronics?

May 28 2013, 2:54pm

Looking at my gdgt HAVE list, I realize they only sony products I have now are headphones. I guess that says something.

I agree with @marc, they still have weight in the home audio / video sectors. Those headphones, I trust I'm getting solid headphones (for cheap) from them. And 5 years ago (when big flat screens where just starting to get popular), a Sony Bravia was the TV to have. The new x900 is gorgeous.

@ianny, maybe I'm an exception to the Sony Ericsson bad association, I loved my Sony Ericsson w810 from the feature phone era; great audio + the battery life was amazing - I was getting a week to a week and a half on a charge! Looking back they actually did an okay job on that software (for the time) too. I do think it was smart to drop "Ericsson" from the brand though.

They generated a lot of hype when Sony announced the Xperia Z at CES 2013, possibly because there just wasn't really any other phones announced at CES that year. It's a sexy looking phone, but they just didn't get it out quick enough and they aren't marketing it enough (it's not available on any of the US carrier's websites). They just can't compete in this market when Samsung and LG are putting out 10 phones to every 1 sony makes.

Building laptops is a category I believe they do need to exit. Although every couple years one of them is really nice, they are plagued with hardware issues (track pads, hinge issues, etc) and driver issues. I know @patrickmckenna ran into issues with his Viao. Only 2 of their laptops got a gdgt score >80.

Stay in home audio / video (headphones, tv's, ps4) and cameras. Exit Laptop, smartphone, and portable media markets.