Sony, business, playstation 3, ps3, qualia

Sony Rebuilding, But PS3 Qualia-Era Left-Over?

Sony is 60, and trying hard to stay relevant (and profitable). But, is the company set in its ways or actually changing? Check out the Associated Press's example of previous Sony branding run amuck:

Three years ago, Sony Corp. launched the Qualia line of luxury gadgets that included a tiny $3,300 digital camera and a $13,000 audio console that automatically centered a compact disc regardless of how carelessly it was tossed into the player.
Problem was, Sony engineers seemed more enamored with the extravagantly priced technology than consumers were, and the products meant to highlight Sony's fine-tuned prowess received little interest beyond the initial gee-whiz.

The gadgets were a sign of a growing gap between Sony creations and consumer sensibilities at the company that brought the world the Walkman portable music player.

Is the PlayStation 3 a hold-over from Sony's Qualia years? Howard Stringer joined the company a year ago, taking the helm as CEO. Drastic cuts followed, including the shuttering of the Qualia line and putting the Aibo to sleep. The PlayStation 3 is a huge gamble for the company, and one that it expects to pay off in spades. But, you gotta wonder, would Sony Computer Entertainment been given such free reign with spending if cost-cutting Stringer had come on earlier? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Yahoo]

6:22 AM on Mon Jul 31 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
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4 comments

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Coweh at 05:46 AM on 07/31/06
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First impressions of the word Qualia: Quality + Genitalia.

Anyways, I think it's a good point that's made there, but I have to disagree. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were definitely not of the same strain, so it seems illogical that they'd purposefully alienate their userbase. Perhaps they were influenced by the Qualia line - maybe it taught them that instead of innovative simple things for lots of money, average consumers wanted lots of power for a bargain. Which, if you remember, is exactly what Sony's been billing the PS3 as.

Unfortunately, gamers aren't synonymous with "average consumer."
caleb at 07:23 AM on 07/31/06
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Connectedness Index: 71

The PS3 is direct proof that Sony's ego has gotten out of hand, un-related to the quality-genitalia line.
Rayzak at 07:39 AM on 07/31/06
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Take this for what it's worth, but it's the truth.

When I worked at one of my local Gamestops in the Grand Rapids area last year, we had no Sony rep. What does that mean? A Rep is the person that brings in the new cardboard stand ups, gives you the demo kiosks/demo discs, promotional material, that sort of thing.

When I asked my boss about it, he said they had not had a rep for almost a year. The reason was that Sony allocates funds to their departments based on the % of the companies total income said department brings in. The Playstation line was actually a small % of that total income when compared to other electronics they sold.

At the same time, the money that the Playstation branch is given is distributed, again, to the most profitable regions. Meaning that Grand Rapids Michigan gets no Sony Rep, while Detroit does.

As a side note, our XBox Rep at the time was a former MS software rep and was a kick ass guy. The Nintendo Rep was a woman that had never played video games in her life and didn't even know about the DS until after Nintendo sent us our dual DS display, and she asked us something like "That looks neat. Who makes it?
YourTechSupport at 08:21 AM on 07/31/06
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1.) Way Overpriced What It Is: Check
2.) Designer-Grade Shiny: Check
3.) Likely to cause migrains as it is to entertain: Check

Unless I can use this thing as an actual PC....