Sony (SNE)

[HenryTo]

First non-Japanese to be Sony's Chairman and CEO
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Sony Considers Shaking Up Top Management
Sunday March 6, 6:37 pm ET
By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Sony Reportedly to Name Chief of U.S. Unit Its New CEO in Bid to Improve Electronics Business

TOKYO (AP) -- Sony Corp. is considering changes to its top executive ranks on Monday, amid growing fears about the Japanese manufacturer's ability to improve results at its faltering core electronics business.
Sony officials refused to comment on media reports that Nobuyuki Idei, chief executive and chairman, will step down and be replaced by Howard Stringer, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Corp. of America. Stringer also serves as Sony's vice chairman.

A board of directors meeting was scheduled Monday morning to discuss management changes and a decision won't be final until then, a Sony official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on their Web sites that Idei had decided to step aside and promote Stringer. The Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun also reported the development in its Monday edition.

Kunitake Ando also is expected to step down as Sony president, according to the reports, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Tokyo-based Sony, which also has entertainment businesses, such as movies, music and video games, has been struggling amid nose-diving prices of electronics products and has relied on hit movies to boost profits.

Products that were once pillars of Sony's power, such as TVs and portable players, have declined in sales in recent years.

Cheaper electronics goods from Asian and other rivals have been a problem for Sony, which built its global brand over the past decades by offering trusted quality although at higher prices.

What was dubbed "Sony shock" happened two years ago, when Sony share prices dropped on worse than expected earnings results. Although Sony's profits have improved since then, they have not made a dramatic revival.

Analysts also say Sony missed the boat with portable music players by delaying a release of products to play MP3 music files, taking a beating from the iPod by Apple Computer Inc.

Movies "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2" have been among the few bright spots in Sony's otherwise faltering performance.

Stringer has overseen the company's entertainment operations, including the recent acquisition of a consortium of U.S. film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer MGM.

Stringer, a native of Cardiff, Wales, is a former CBS reporter and served as president of the network from 1986 to 1988. He joined Sony in 1997. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1999.

Idei was a surprise choice as president in 1995, bypassing more than 10 contenders. He was hand-picked by Norio Ohga, who succeeded Sony founder Akio Morita.

In recent years, competition from South Korean rival Samsung Electronics has battered Sony, and Sony has set up a joint venture with Samsung in liquid-crystal displays.

Sony has also fallen behind Japanese rivals such as Sharp Corp. in liquid-crystal display TVs and xxx Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, in the DVD recorder market.

[HenryTo]

Sony to invest $200 million on technology to manufacture larger OLED panels:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10759

[HenryTo]

Article from TechologyReview.com. The message is clear: Tread carefully and if you play your cards right, your bottom line may actually benefit as a result.
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Will Sony Crack Down on PSP Hacks?
By Eric Hellweg April 8, 2005

Less than two weeks after Sony released its long-anticipated PlayStation Portable, a handheld gaming device with multimedia capabilities, the device's most ardent fans began spreading details about their successful hacks. Among the more ingenious: Web browsing additions, instant-message chats, and TiVo-recording playbacks.

The PSP is already a strong seller in that short timeframe. Reviews of the multi-function device are almost universally positive, and with the heavy overlap between hardcore geeks and hardcore gamers, it seems a natural fit for hacker interest to run high. What's more, the unit comes with 32MB of memory, music and movie playing capabilities and built-in WiFi access, meaning it offers plenty of tools for hackers to play with.

Sony has been mum on the hacks so far. The company didn't respond to TechnologyReview.com's request for comment.

However, the company's history with product hacks suggests that it will tread this situation very carefully. In 2001, Sony forced a fan of the company's robotic dog toy Aibo to remove code from his site that allowed the dog to do such things as dance.

That fan, known as AiboPet, was served with a lawsuit for his efforts. As a result, Aibo fans boycotted the robotic dog and Sony eventually relented in its efforts when public outcry over the crackdown grew.

The lesson learned: Sony might do well to let the hackers run their course with the device -- it would likely engender an even more slavish devotion to the device.

"The hacks show there's enthusiasm for the platform -- that”s good news," says P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research. "If people want to use the device to chat with someone, where's the revenue loss for Sony?"

With Aibo, Sony's hand was forced by the public's reaction, but in the game space, several examples exist of companies succeeding by allowing -- and even encouraging --these hacks.

One particularly striking example came with Valve Software's decision to make the code for its popular game Half-Life available to hackers who then took to the code and created Counter-Strike, which grew to become the most-played online game. Eventually, Valve Software decided to release the game -- with full support --- in 2002, while still allowing the players to use the older, hacked versions.

The decision turned out to be a good one. After its official release, it went on to become one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year.

Sometimes, consumers come up with entirely new ideas for a product, ideas that loosely adhere to the product's original intention such as the nascent pod-casting phenomenon.

Podcasting is the act of recording an audio "show" similar to a radio program, and then putting it online for other people to freely download to their iPods. Apple is happy to let these users explore podcasting, provided they're not playing copyrighted music or allowing others to download their playlists.

If podcasting really catches on, then companies such as Apple likely will sell more iPods as a result, thereby increasing revenues, profits, and user devotion.

But Apple hasn't always acted so benevolently, as evidenced by the company's steamroller legal assault on blogs that posted pre-release product information.

These days, companies are faced with the problem of correctly guessing when to embrace their customers and when to clamp down. "Very few companies encourage hacking," says Schelley Olhava, an analyst with IDC. "But at the same time, how do you stop it without alienating your users?"

Clearly, there are times when a company must crackdown on user modifications of its products. In 2002, for example, Microsoft shut down a Hong Kong-based company that was selling modified chips for the company's Xbox game system. The chips allowed users to play pirated games on their Xboxes, and Microsoft move was swift and warranted.

But for Sony, the decision on how to react to this PSP hack is a tough one indeed. Any company has a right to defend its intellectual property, but Sony must weigh the balance between coming down hard on this hack and gently steering users away from more malicious modifications.

Making the decision even tougher, Sony as a company is struggling to find its way in the digital era. Most of its digital music efforts have been disastrous, and the PSP is the first technology hit the company has had in some time.

With a new CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, at the helm, maybe now's the time to strike a new relationship with its most ardent fans, by allowing these innocuous hacks and saving the lawyers for the ones that will hurt the bottom line.