Richard Waters writes in the FT about how far Sony has fallen. Back in the day, a Sony product meant something – the only real analog to what they once were might be Apple (good products at premium prices that actually sold remarkably well). Buying Sony was like buying from Cuisinart: you were guaranteed something that not everyone had and that you would definitely enjoy. They had brand loyalty, charisma, and high tech wrapped up. Remember Auto Focus? All Sony gear.
Now? Not so much.
Sony is living in a commodified world. All of the things that they were once good at – TVs, video cameras, portable audio – are all either taken over by other brands or are simply commodity items in a crowded marketplace. The sheer fact that a company like Vizio could make and sell a cheap plasma TV and, more importantly, succeed, is a testament to this situation. People are happy to spend less on what they now know is essentially the same hardware, be it a monitor or a blender. Sony can’t quite crack the modern fixation on status brands like the iPod and probably never will.
Will we be living in a post-Sony society? No. Samsung turned itself around as did LG. It will take a while, but Sony needs to stop thinking Sony can run the market and instead run with the market by churning out consistently good products that people want to buy at prices that they would have scoffed at a few years ago.
Well, in Brazil people who own a Sony Laptop, instead of saying “My laptop” say “My Vaio”.
And in Canada, most of my friends desire a PS3, the only problem is that it is too expensive. So they buy a Wii.
In Brazil, most of the people buy a PS2, because it is cheap and you can play backups really easily.
Bravia, Cybershot, Vaio, Playstation. Are still really big brands.
Walkman is the only one that doesn’t have the same status.
That is my opinion (:
I kinda love Sony, but i’m trying to think beyond that love.
And I’m pretty sure I had some English mistakes, sorry.
hey fernando get a good job and stop being cheap. If you saved that money you wasted on the wii you are more than halfway to the best machine known to mankind. (THE PS3)
I have a PS3.
I never sad that I bought a Wii, but most of my friends did.
They are just 16, and spend C$400 on a console is not that easy.
And please, don’t call me cheap.
Hey Don, go do your trolling somewhere else. Plenty of other sites for fanboys to have their flamewars.