Sony closing down?

Don Haines

Don Haines

Beware of cats with laser eyes!
Jun 3, 2012
8,243
1,935
Canada
#1
Sony has already stopped making laptops....

They announced today that they are closing all their retail outlets (The Sony Store) in Canada.

This is "interesting" behavior and does not make me confident about their future. It looks a lot more like a company that is shutting down than a "market leader"
 
#2
FWIW they closed the Sony stores in my area a while back.

Between myself and my family, we have many Sony Vaio laptops (I am on my second) and despite the price being a bit more than some of the competition, I always thought the product was well worth it. I was disappointed when they got out of the computer business.

Now my wife and my kids have 3 different NEX cameras and a RX-100 between them. Sony also manufactures sensors for other camera makers. I sure hope they aren't going anywhere.
 
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#4
Sony has been losing money for some time. Their PCs were stylish but never had the best hardware or pricing for the designs they were trying to do. They just haven't been competitive because they focus on high-priced - and often questionably designed - products. They sort of know what they are doing in some areas, but because there are so many divisions of Sony that are intertwined (Entertainment, Electronics/Semi-Conductor/Digital Imaging, Mobile, Digital Cinema, etc.), their direction has been haphazard in today's markets. Their retail stores never made money because they were not competitive in their pricing, but they were excellent for showcasing Sony tech and the quality of their TVs and Audio equipment. Sony was just too slow and monolithic to adapt fast enough for the current trends in low-priced, well performing tech because it was the antithesis of what they are all about, which is high-priced, middling tech with fashionable designs. Look at how they ruined the Walkman brand with no expandable memory and high-priced players with minimal audio format support. Only now is Sony starting to right their ship after a decade or so of questionable decisions.
 
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#5
As far as sensors are concerned, they will sell their patents, so someone will produce them.

As far a Sony gear... I have a ps2, ps3, audio system, and a hdtv ... So I like Sony quality.

Sony pictures had their screw up with the interview, but that should not hurt them that badly.
 
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#6
I also see dangerous signs of poor financial health of Sony. I wish that they remain competitive to force Canon to to move your ass. :-\

In recent decades, Sony no longer that solid company that used to be. Sony offered unique and unsurpassed products such as Betacam, DVCam, Trinitron... :-[

Days ago I made a post about a new Sony Walkman, I consider intended to sell a few dozen worldwide, and CR members called me ignorant about the Audiophile market. :(

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=24515.msg481257#msg481257
 
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#8
I have always liked their laptops. I have bought dozens of them at work and never had a failure. I bought one of the "flip" laptops for home and love it....

Now they have left the laptop market "because the world is moving to tablets". They are closing down the retail stores... It looks a lot like a huge restructuring over several years. It is hard to say what will stay and what will go, but it would certainly make me nervous.
 
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#9
Sony's most profitable business, by far, is insurance. Some activist shareholders actually tried to get Sony to sell of their entire consumer electronics business last year.

Also, to quote Mike Myers Dr. Evil on his most recent Saturday Night Live appearance (just after Sony was hacked), "Sony hasn't had a hit since the Walkman".

Personally, I used to love their products, but other than the Vaios, everything else I've bought from them has crapped out just after the warranty, or they have stopped supporting it as soon as the next version of it came out 6 months later. They are so focused on doing everything in the short term (unlike Canon, Panasonic, & now Fuji) that none of their innovation is going to matter. It's sad to watch.
 
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#11
Don Haines said:
Sony has already stopped making laptops....

They announced today that they are closing all their retail outlets (The Sony Store) in Canada.

This is "interesting" behavior and does not make me confident about their future. It looks a lot more like a company that is shutting down than a "market leader"
Click to expand...

It's not surprising. It's interesting only in the sense that it's what has been expected for some time - so we're seeing plans being put into action.

I wouldn't think too much about it affecting their camera division (at least in the short term) though as that's one of the divisions they've decided (at least from what I've read) to put their resources into while pulling resources out of other divisions such as their everyday consumer electronics.

Will their strategy pan out in the long term? Who knows. Even though I'm not interested in buying a Sony camera I have to admit that they've made a pretty big splash lately in that pool.

Personally, I think Canon and Nikon will be competing against Sony for quite some time.
 
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#12
Sony is and has been an extremely innovative company, unfortunately they have been led down the path of being everyman's (read also women) company for everything, and that just hasn't worked well for Sony, or indeed the consumer.

Sony it appears are at last waking to the fact that they need to be more specialised and concentrate their efforts in particular areas that have not just the best profits, but the best long term Market positioning for Sony.

There's a lot of Apple dislikers in the World, but fortunately for Apple they are outnumbered by the Apple likes, and say what you like about Apple, but when it comes to Business acumen, there are very few companies that can emulate them, innovative, Market specialists, concentrating on those products that Apple do better than most.

Sony would do well to take heed, it may just save them from obscurity in the medium term.
 
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#13
Those shops have never been about making money, they are a marketing expense. If sony felt they weren't getting enough marketing for their outlay the only reasonable thing is to close them down. They try to emulate apple but it doesn't work, partly because they don't have the sect like following apple do. Another big part is that their electronics simply isn't any better than the competition yet still costs the same or quite often more. When was the last time you heard about any true technological advances by sony? And no, the camera sensors don't count, they are evolutionary and nothing more.
 
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#16
Sony is generally doing the right thing. They are focusing on making products and letting those who are retail experts sell them. They are not in danger of going out of business, but the lower yen value hurts a company that must import a lot of raw materials and parts.

Their Mobile Communications business is a dog, and they need to dump it, its dragging everything else down.

Their motion picture business is losing, but not so much.

Their laptops were big money losers simply because of the price.



While I do not like Sony products myself, I see that they are making necessary cuts in weak areas and concentrating on the parts that make money. They still need to bite the bullet and dump the mobile phones.
 
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#17
Sony needs to focus. They have spread themselves thin into various products. While this can be a good thing to carry a company through lean times where certain segments will falter and some shine, in their case, there has been little shining. Obviously they are doing well outfitting camera manufacturers with sensors but the phone, tv and computer sides of the business have been dismal performers for them. It's almost as though they think their name recognition reputation for stellar products still rings loudly in people's ears. They sadly don't seem to be the market leader they might have once been. They are just marginal market players when it comes to phone and tv. How can they be expected to make money? Cutting back by closing their stores is a good start. I can only remember myself having gone into one once in the last fifteen years. It was way back when I was looking into going digital.
 
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#18
Don Haines said:
Sony has already stopped making laptops....

They announced today that they are closing all their retail outlets (The Sony Store) in Canada.

This is "interesting" behavior and does not make me confident about their future. It looks a lot more like a company that is shutting down than a "market leader"
Click to expand...

Target leaving Canada, to close all 133 stores, lay off 17,600 workers. From todays Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-target-leaving-canada-20150115-story.html

Maybe Canada is a bad place for brick-and-mortar stores. Could it be possible that Amazon, etc are killing local business even faster in Canada than in the USA ???

It's not hard for me to envision a future with no local retail, except Big Box stores (Costco, Sam's Club) and Online Super Stores (like Amazon). A place without B&H and Adorama, because the camera companies sell direct to consumers online.
 
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#20
c.d.embrey said:
It's not hard for me to envision a future with no local retail, except Big Box stores (Costco, Sam's Club) and Online Super Stores (like Amazon). A place without B&H and Adorama, because the camera companies sell direct to consumers online.
Click to expand...

Sam's Club was closed down in Canada in 2009
 
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