How somebody, thinking about something for 5 years and unable to even get the "basics" of what his competitor is doing figured out, can be a CEO is beyond me.
Look Stringer, you come out of your hole when you have something to show. What does it do. How much does it cost. When does it ship. If the latter is > 60 days, read the paragraph from the beginning.
All he really said was: Apple is doing it better than us, but one day we will show you. What a message.
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
A friend of mine bought a Sony LCD TV and hated it. From what I understand and experienced Sony likes to make their products unique and harder to adapt to any change in its environment. Such as resolution adaptation with their friggen TV's. That same friend has a Vizio LCD TV and it out performs the Sony every time. So my friend uses the Sony as a DVD player TV in his bedroom. Pretty sad. The only good thing that I see Sony producing is the PS3. Blue Ray is a mute point for me. Just as steve hobs felt it was a night mare.
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
I've recently purchased an (expensive) Sony Blue-ray player (the BDP-S580), featuring Internet TV and Media Player sections. The Media Player reads a very limited number of file formats (among the others, iPhone 4 movies are not supported...), and very often freezes the system that must be disconnected from the power to be reset.
The Internet TV has a monster user interface, ridiculous content (including a few channels with some amateur clips, and some contents from the Italian state-owned TV that do not play at all)j. There is no support for modern channels like Vimeo. The (still incomplete) remote controller for iPhone has not been updated for months. The only use it can have, is as a DLNA client for the excellent - and free - iMediaShare app. Hadn't I trashed the package materials away, I would have returned it.
If this is the way Sony is approaching the future, I fear they will be the new Commodore, or the new Telefunken.
One of Sony's problems is the non cooperation between it's divisions, particularly content and devices. This is what happened with digital music, the 2 divisions were unable to work together for the overall benefit of the company.
They will have to learn quickly how to leverage what they have. After all, if they get their strategy right, having all this stuff in house SHOULD be an advantage. Also, I'm not sure that they have the software expertise to innovate effectively, but I wish them well.
I mean really if you can't or won't charge enough to be profitable then who is to blame? You simply can't be successful in business selling equipment at a loss. I'm not a big TV user but really have a negative opinion of Sony hardware, so maybe they are dealing with a double edged sword here. That is not charging enough in a market that is showing a dropping demand for their product.
In any event I can't see Apple even entering the market unless they can sell something at a profitable price point. It is a key element of their business, unprofitable hardware does not stay around long. It will be interesting to see how much Apple charges for their TV.
It is notable though that the TV production industry has always been a dog eat dog business. When selling into a consumer market that cares about nothing but price you will have businesses failing right and left. This is Apples biggest problem with a potential Apple TV, that is having a machine that people are willing to buy at a profitable price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KaptainK
The DTV business is fundamentally broken.
I'm an EE who designs IP for DTV SoCs and the industry is in big trouble. No one, not even Samsung, is making money out of DTV. The R&D costs are simply too high in comparison to the overall cost of the end product. Semi suppliers are working on incredibly tight margins to produce SoCs that are more systemically complex than a top of the range of Intel CPU but sell for about 5% of the price. It says a lot when both Intel and Broadcom canned their respective DTV businesses recently and those companies that remain are in deep trouble.
Did you just respond to two different people with the same message? That is a bit like spam if you ask me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by philky
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
I worked for Sony for over 10 years. Trust me when I say that Apple has nothing to worry about. I was there at CES 8 years ago when Stringer got up on stage at with Yahoo touting how they were going to bring the Internet to the living room. It's been a long, winding, unprofitable road since then.
More recently, there was the Google TV half baked rollout. A disaster. Sony could not give up control to Google fast enough. And together they rolled out a horrible user experience.
Their whole effort in tablets and e-readers is a joke. Essentially 0% market share. Even though they have been toiling with e-readers for over a decade.
Apple (and Android phones) are decimating the company's gaming business (especially the PSP and now the Vista. It will be dead in two years) and increasingly their camcorder and camera business as 1080P and 8MP moves to mobiles phones. Not to mention that their mobile business.
Anybody (including myself) who uses the PS3 will know that Sony has ADD when it comes to software interfaces. It is like it was designed by high school sophomores. Xbox is much more elegant and simple in comparison.
Christ, this company still makes shitty plastic alarm clocks and various video and audio tapes.
The founders of Sony would be appalled and embarrassed.
It's nice that Steve Jobs was working on a TV concept, but it better not take to long to show what he had started, or it will all be forgotten.
Do the folks at Apple have what it takes to bring the TV to the forefront, do they care to do so?
I for one, would rather they put their time and energy BACK into what got them here in the first place, and up-date the Pro Series Desktop / Tower units ? please.
It's nice that Steve Jobs was working on a TV concept, but it better not take to long to show what he had started, or it will all be forgotten.
Do the folks at Apple have what it takes to bring the TV to the forefront, do they care to do so?
I for one, would rather they put their time and energy BACK into what got them here in the first place, and up-date the Pro Series Desktop / Tower units ? please.
Skip
The iPod, iPhone, and iPad is what got them here in the first place. The company was on its way out making desktop computers. Even Jobs admitted that. And the resurgence of the Mac was a direct result of the move to consumer products, the so-called halo effect.
The iPod, iPhone, and iPad is what got them here in the first place. The company was on its way out making desktop computers. Even Jobs admitted that. And the resurgence of the Mac was a direct result of the move to consumer products, the so-called halo effect.
Yes, except this is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Had Apple not been making computers, they wouldn't not have gone into making iPod's and so on ?
Let us now forgot that the funky iMacs' came before the iPods, not to mention their Laptops too.
There was no way that Sony or even Samsung could compete with Apple.
They both spend millions on R&D. Always trying to outdo the other guy.
Apple's approach, or better yet S. Jobs approach. Let the whole company (Apple) continue making tons of money doing what they have been doing (iPhones, iPads, etc.).
While Jobs put their whole R&D department to work on a better more simple solution.
Of course that consisted of Steve Jobs taking walks and finding out what is lacking in the TV experience. After that department (himself) did that. It will all be downhill. Shoot now, he can leave it to the other geniuses to put it all together. Make either OS work along with it.
Have Cook corner the market for all the innards. Get the screen made up at an unbeatable price. And slam all the competitors to the ground with a sub- $1000. Unit.
Like I said, these guys don't know it yet. But they can't compete.
Yes, except this is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Had Apple not been making computers, they wouldn't not have gone into making iPod's and so on ?
Let us now forgot that the funky iMacs' came before the iPods, not to mention their Laptops too.
Skip
Would you like to see us back to Neanderthal? because you are aware Homo Sapiens is not the first hominoid, and so without the less evolved forms before us we wouldn't be here either.
Joke aside technology evolves just like everything else, clinging to the past? gets you in the past.
So... Sony spent the last 5 years doing *what* exactly?
It's a secret (just like Apple uses secrets!), it'll be announced a month or so before the new Apple TV, then delayed, then released 6 months after Apple TV with almost all the same features.
The executive went on to note that there's a "tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set." For his part, Jobs revealed to his biographer that he had "cracked" the secret for a simple and elegant interface for an Apple-style television set.
Apple strategy for TV is so obvious that it puzzles me nobody sees it. The problem is the interface and the way to manipulate content on the interface. The TV screen is not a computer screen, using a remote or a mouse to navigate menus on TV is, at best, an awkward experience. The TV screen is not in our immediate reach and using hands to manipulate content on screen is like having a giant, clumsy, mechanical hand. On the contrary, replicating the screen on the iPad and manipulating content on the iPad is very natural. So, the iPad will be the perfect remote. With all it implies (iTunes, an AppleTV inside the TV set etc)
"I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs," he said after admitting that the iPhone is "really well organized." That platform is "finished, and it's launching now," Stringer continued.
Jesus...ANOTHER executive that doesn't get it. These companies invest hundreds of millions developing products to "enter the market" and "compete with Apple." Then they wonder why their products fail or barely hang on.
But the answer is simple: Your company's goal is merely to sell products and compete with Apple. Meanwhile, Apple's goal is to create amazing products, which then sell themselves. We saw this Micro$oft, with HP, RIM and Samsung. And now we have Sony.
Comments
They will never learn it?
How somebody, thinking about something for 5 years and unable to even get the "basics" of what his competitor is doing figured out, can be a CEO is beyond me.
Look Stringer, you come out of your hole when you have something to show. What does it do. How much does it cost. When does it ship. If the latter is > 60 days, read the paragraph from the beginning.
All he really said was: Apple is doing it better than us, but one day we will show you. What a message.
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
A friend of mine bought a Sony LCD TV and hated it. From what I understand and experienced Sony likes to make their products unique and harder to adapt to any change in its environment. Such as resolution adaptation with their friggen TV's. That same friend has a Vizio LCD TV and it out performs the Sony every time. So my friend uses the Sony as a DVD player TV in his bedroom. Pretty sad. The only good thing that I see Sony producing is the PS3. Blue Ray is a mute point for me. Just as steve hobs felt it was a night mare.
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
The Internet TV has a monster user interface, ridiculous content (including a few channels with some amateur clips, and some contents from the Italian state-owned TV that do not play at all)j. There is no support for modern channels like Vimeo. The (still incomplete) remote controller for iPhone has not been updated for months. The only use it can have, is as a DLNA client for the excellent - and free - iMediaShare app. Hadn't I trashed the package materials away, I would have returned it.
If this is the way Sony is approaching the future, I fear they will be the new Commodore, or the new Telefunken.
Paolo
They will have to learn quickly how to leverage what they have. After all, if they get their strategy right, having all this stuff in house SHOULD be an advantage. Also, I'm not sure that they have the software expertise to innovate effectively, but I wish them well.
In any event I can't see Apple even entering the market unless they can sell something at a profitable price point. It is a key element of their business, unprofitable hardware does not stay around long. It will be interesting to see how much Apple charges for their TV.
It is notable though that the TV production industry has always been a dog eat dog business. When selling into a consumer market that cares about nothing but price you will have businesses failing right and left. This is Apples biggest problem with a potential Apple TV, that is having a machine that people are willing to buy at a profitable price.
The DTV business is fundamentally broken.
I'm an EE who designs IP for DTV SoCs and the industry is in big trouble. No one, not even Samsung, is making money out of DTV. The R&D costs are simply too high in comparison to the overall cost of the end product. Semi suppliers are working on incredibly tight margins to produce SoCs that are more systemically complex than a top of the range of Intel CPU but sell for about 5% of the price. It says a lot when both Intel and Broadcom canned their respective DTV businesses recently and those companies that remain are in deep trouble.
Bad times.
I cannot agree more! I am also a victim of Sony's latest TV products, having purchased a top 3D model that forever shows 2 broken images instead of a combined 3D picture! I bought it to play my 3D video made on a JVC 3D camcorder. I took it to Sony showroom and tried playing on even the most expensive models, and the results were same. But when I tried it on the new Panasonic, it's heaven vs. hell! The 3D on Pana was just clear and rock solid, with no overlapping (they call it "crosstalk"). This experience tells me I should stay away from Sony TV products. Same for their camcorders. Once my favourite, they suddenly removed all manual controls on consumer models, and even Auto modes don't offer high speed Sports mode anymore. The software is the worse I've seen. With AVC files, the JVC allows combining of all scenes into one movie, but this is not the case for Sony. I wonder what's gone so terribly wrong with this company and its products? I used to love it, now it's low on my list.
Why not do a Samsung, Sony and copy these inventions?
More recently, there was the Google TV half baked rollout. A disaster. Sony could not give up control to Google fast enough. And together they rolled out a horrible user experience.
Their whole effort in tablets and e-readers is a joke. Essentially 0% market share. Even though they have been toiling with e-readers for over a decade.
Apple (and Android phones) are decimating the company's gaming business (especially the PSP and now the Vista. It will be dead in two years) and increasingly their camcorder and camera business as 1080P and 8MP moves to mobiles phones. Not to mention that their mobile business.
Anybody (including myself) who uses the PS3 will know that Sony has ADD when it comes to software interfaces. It is like it was designed by high school sophomores. Xbox is much more elegant and simple in comparison.
Christ, this company still makes shitty plastic alarm clocks and various video and audio tapes.
The founders of Sony would be appalled and embarrassed.
Do the folks at Apple have what it takes to bring the TV to the forefront, do they care to do so?
I for one, would rather they put their time and energy BACK into what got them here in the first place, and up-date the Pro Series Desktop / Tower units ? please.
Skip
It's nice that Steve Jobs was working on a TV concept, but it better not take to long to show what he had started, or it will all be forgotten.
Do the folks at Apple have what it takes to bring the TV to the forefront, do they care to do so?
I for one, would rather they put their time and energy BACK into what got them here in the first place, and up-date the Pro Series Desktop / Tower units ? please.
Skip
The iPod, iPhone, and iPad is what got them here in the first place. The company was on its way out making desktop computers. Even Jobs admitted that. And the resurgence of the Mac was a direct result of the move to consumer products, the so-called halo effect.
The iPod, iPhone, and iPad is what got them here in the first place. The company was on its way out making desktop computers. Even Jobs admitted that. And the resurgence of the Mac was a direct result of the move to consumer products, the so-called halo effect.
Yes, except this is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Had Apple not been making computers, they wouldn't not have gone into making iPod's and so on ?
Let us now forgot that the funky iMacs' came before the iPods, not to mention their Laptops too.
Skip
They both spend millions on R&D. Always trying to outdo the other guy.
Apple's approach, or better yet S. Jobs approach. Let the whole company (Apple) continue making tons of money doing what they have been doing (iPhones, iPads, etc.).
While Jobs put their whole R&D department to work on a better more simple solution.
Of course that consisted of Steve Jobs taking walks and finding out what is lacking in the TV experience. After that department (himself) did that. It will all be downhill. Shoot now, he can leave it to the other geniuses to put it all together. Make either OS work along with it.
Have Cook corner the market for all the innards. Get the screen made up at an unbeatable price. And slam all the competitors to the ground with a sub- $1000. Unit.
Like I said, these guys don't know it yet. But they can't compete.
Yes, except this is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Had Apple not been making computers, they wouldn't not have gone into making iPod's and so on ?
Let us now forgot that the funky iMacs' came before the iPods, not to mention their Laptops too.
Skip
Would you like to see us back to Neanderthal? because you are aware Homo Sapiens is not the first hominoid, and so without the less evolved forms before us we wouldn't be here either.
Joke aside technology evolves just like everything else, clinging to the past? gets you in the past.
So... Sony spent the last 5 years doing *what* exactly?
It's a secret (just like Apple uses secrets!), it'll be announced a month or so before the new Apple TV, then delayed, then released 6 months after Apple TV with almost all the same features.
So... Sony spent the last 5 years doing *what* exactly?
Overcoming itself. The inertia of being uncompetitive.
The executive went on to note that there's a "tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set." For his part, Jobs revealed to his biographer that he had "cracked" the secret for a simple and elegant interface for an Apple-style television set.
Apple strategy for TV is so obvious that it puzzles me nobody sees it. The problem is the interface and the way to manipulate content on the interface. The TV screen is not a computer screen, using a remote or a mouse to navigate menus on TV is, at best, an awkward experience. The TV screen is not in our immediate reach and using hands to manipulate content on screen is like having a giant, clumsy, mechanical hand. On the contrary, replicating the screen on the iPad and manipulating content on the iPad is very natural. So, the iPad will be the perfect remote. With all it implies (iTunes, an AppleTV inside the TV set etc)
"I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs," he said after admitting that the iPhone is "really well organized." That platform is "finished, and it's launching now," Stringer continued.
Jesus...ANOTHER executive that doesn't get it. These companies invest hundreds of millions developing products to "enter the market" and "compete with Apple." Then they wonder why their products fail or barely hang on.
But the answer is simple: Your company's goal is merely to sell products and compete with Apple. Meanwhile, Apple's goal is to create amazing products, which then sell themselves. We saw this Micro$oft, with HP, RIM and Samsung. And now we have Sony.
The stupidity is amazing.
But I will never again buy a Sony product, because their customer service is horrible.