The incoming chief executive officer of Sony Corp. - Kazuo Hirai - said that one of the main tasks that he would need to accomplish to make Sony successful again is to connect the conglomerate's hardware, software and content. The strategy Sony wants to adopt clearly resembles that of Apple, the company that managed to become a major consumer electronics maker in less than a decade.
"The Sony Computer Entertainment model is a bigger concept we can grow into a bigger space. Hardware drives software and software drives hardware," said Kazuo Hirai, the incoming CEO of Sony, reports Reuters news-agency.
The "PlayStation model" adopted by SCE division of Sony is not exactly something that should be adopted on a wider basis as it requires Sony to sell hardware at a loss and then profit from selling additional software. However, many elements of this model can actually be adopted in order to boost profitability of Sony.
Unlike Apple or Samsung, Sony owns movie, music and games software development companies and should naturally help to drive sales of in-house products. Nonetheless, SCE has experience, just like Apple, in selling third-party content successfully, something that Sony clearly needs to borrow from its PlayStation unit.
It is well-known that the times for Sony nowadays are more than challenging. Back in the days the company had to compete against other makers of consumer electronics and what it needed was to make high-quality products while maximizing its profitability by offering certain features. Today, simply good hardware with exclusive functionality is clearly not enough as products should form eco-systems to be successful. Creating a unique Sony eco-system while maintaining compatibility with Google Android and Microsoft Windows platforms is an extremely challenging task and Mr. Hirai has to succeed in this. Moreover, even on the "traditional" markets of "not connected" devices Kazuo Hirai
The new CEO of Sony admits: he will have to make hard decisions across all business units and product lines of Sony. The hope is: the outcome will be brand-new Sony.
"We have to make some hard decisions on where there are some redundancies and reduce the fixed costs in a variety of different areas," said Kaz Hirai.
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