Sony Stakes Future in Entertainment, Not Technology

NY Times: Shakeup at Sony Puts Westerner in Leader's Role. The board of the Sony Corporation of Japan named Sir Howard Stringer its chairman and chief executive today, an unusual instance of a leading Japanese company turning to a foreigner to fill a top position, the company said in Tokyo. Sir Howard, a Welsh-born former television news journalist, runs Sony Corporation of America and has helped revive the company's music and movie businesses in the United States. He will succeed Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's current chairman and chief executive, who had planned to retire next year after Sony's 60th anniversary.

Sony has had a blatant internal conflict for years, between its entertainment operations and its technologists. The entertainment people have succeeded in crippling the technology -- notably the absolute refusal until recently to allow the use of the MP3 format in its music players -- and have helped make Sony less relevant in the gadget world.

Stringer is one of the leaders of an entertainment cartel that uses copyright law to thwart innovation that it can't control or veto. His appointment to the head of Sony means, simply, that the entertainment side controls the company.

Comments

[JS]

The fact that Stringer came from the entertainment side of the company could potentially bring Sony even less relevance as the rest of the technology industry caters more to the customers' demand for greater control of their personal entertainment.

[Scott Lawrence]

I think JS is right. It's unfortunate that Sony hasn't taken the hint from being utterly dominated in the MP3/digital music player space by Apple, a company that came to that field late. It's a shame that we can't expect more from the company who brought us the Walkman and the Playstation.

[david]

A perfect example of the tail wagging the dog. The initial reason for Sony getting into the content arena was to ensure that they could ensure they had content for their new devices. The reasoning was simple: Sony creates a new whizbang gotta have device but unfortunately no one wants to provide content for it. By getting into the TV and music business they guaranteed content. But now content is in control making sure only the 'proper' devices get to market. Sigh. So long Sony.

[koreyel]

"Stringer is one of the leaders of an entertainment cartel that uses copyright law to thwart innovation that it can't control or veto. His appointment to the head of Sony means, simply, that the entertainment side controls the company."

Yep.

This the middle of the end for Sony.

One almost expects it to soon spin off the tech-toy side of itself.

Strange, every now and then when I reach for my ipod I refer to it as a walkman. This happens increasingly infrequently. Ultimately, I suspect, it won't happen at all.