Sony abandons PC production

[Kumabjorn]

Sony Selling PC business

Sony is giving up the Vaio. Is E-reader next?

[Lynx-lynx]

Jings the Japanese electronics industry is going through a change of the guard it seems:

Last week, Moody’s cut its credit rating on Sony to junk, saying the once-dominant firm had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet.

Japan’s embattled electronics industry, including Sony rivals Panasonic and Sharp, has been undergoing painful restructuring to stem years of huge losses, largely tied to the low-margin TV business.

[ProfCrash]

Well, Sony has given up trying to sell an e-reader in the US. That is not a good sign. I wonder how Sony is doing compared to Kobo in Europe and Japan?

[Kumabjorn]

In Japan there is probably less than 500.000 E-readers in circulation. A contributing factor is that the Japanese has always liked bigger phones with more features, even their feature phones had displays that equal smartphones. Hence, they simply prefer to do all their "computing" including digital reading on their phones rather than a dedicated e-Ink display.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Sony Selling PC business

Sony is giving up the Vaio. Is E-reader next?

Sony's biggest problem in the PC business is that they tried to view it as any other consumer electronic item and they figured their prestige of their name allowed them to sell their PCs at a premium. The problem was they were charging premium prices for machines that usually weren't a premium product.

--
Bill

[Namekuseijin]

I'd say these days in electronics Sony is all about the Playstation entertainment console and XPeria highly-rated smartphone line. The TV line is great, but overrated and overpriced...

PCs are going the way of the mainframe. At least this stupid desktop business controlled by a single company as opposed to a true personal computer always in your pocket. Sony did right.

[OtterBooks]

PCs are still essential in business and education, but Sony never really got a foothold there from what I can tell, possibly due to pricing.

[Salgueiros]

If Sony ever stops producing ereaders i will return to reading paper books 100% of the time (when my last Sony reader dies).

I don't think any of the other readers comes close in form, function and design.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

If Sony ever stops producing ereaders i will return to reading paper books 100% of the time (when my last Sony reader dies).

I don't think any of the other readers comes close in form, function and design.

wow, a die-hard

what I expect from an e-reader: eInk screen with good outdoor visibility and great battery life and some method to turn pages and choose books from. Guess any of them fit the bill...

turning back to paper: never

[Penforhire]

Sony is also still strong in pro video and consumer digital cameras.

[piper28]

I always thought the Vaio Z series laptops were pretty superb laptops up until the last generation or so. They made a great small and light laptop. However, they charged a huge premium for them, and quite honestly, my experience says they weren't the most reliable of laptops. (We had a number of them for work, and within a year and a half every single one of them was either dead or had major issues. By far our worst failure rate of any manufacturer I've dealt with. And their warranty support for them sucked - maybe not the worst of any company I've dealt with, but pretty darn close. Including once making me drive 75 miles to actually visit a Sony store, who ended up *losing* the laptop taken in (actually, reading between the lines I'm pretty sure they had an employee stealing a number of laptops at the time, but not sure why they'd want to steal a dead laptop)).

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by piper28

I always thought the Vaio Z series laptops were pretty superb laptops up until the last generation or so. They made a great small and light laptop. However, they charged a huge premium for them, and quite honestly, my experience says they weren't the most reliable of laptops. (We had a number of them for work, and within a year and a half every single one of them was either dead or had major issues. By far our worst failure rate of any manufacturer I've dealt with. And their warranty support for them sucked - maybe not the worst of any company I've dealt with, but pretty darn close. Including once making me drive 75 miles to actually visit a Sony store, who ended up *losing* the laptop taken in (actually, reading between the lines I'm pretty sure they had an employee stealing a number of laptops at the time, but not sure why they'd want to steal a dead laptop)).

In past Sony had very good machines.
I used for number of years.
Now Lenovo.

[Josieb1]

I have a Sony PRS 650 and a Kobo Aura. I'd say kobo is as good as Sony, barring in mind how little progress Sony has made over the last few years. And if they don't start to embrace the new technology, like lighted screens, they might as well give up now.

[ProfCrash]

Given that Sony is not selling in the US market I think it is safe to say that the white flag is slowly creeping up the flag pole.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Given that Sony is not selling in the US market I think it is safe to say that the white flag is slowly creeping up the flag pole.

With the other thread now in News, it seems as if that flag has made it to the top!!