Rumored Sony Layoffs: Ebook Readers Affected?

[vivaldirules]

I heard on the news yesterday (today?) that there is a rumor that Sony will announce 10,000 layoffs (did I hear that's about 6%?) later this week. Is there any speculation this may hit their ebook readers any harder or lighter than other products?

[ProfCrash]

Yup, 6% of their labor force.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...Y5S_story.html

I will point out that the T1 has been on sale at the bigger box stores in the US for a while now. I take that as a more clear indication that they might be ending their e-reader program than the layoffs.

I wish Sony had figured out how to make their ecosystem more user friendly and work better. We all have a lot to think Sony for. Their original e-readers are probably a large part of what made todays e-readers possible. They were well built and had great features on them. The 350, 650, and 950 have some of the most loyal users I have seen on these boards.

Sony failed to market their devices well. I know that the first e-reader I saw was a Sony but I could not remember the brand after seeing it in a bookstore. When I told my Hubby about thinking I wanted an e-reader, he got me a Kindle because Amazon had it plastered across its webpage. Knowing my Hubby, he read up on the Sony and decided that Amazon had a better bookstore and that would make me happier.

Their devices, while excellent, were priced way too high and were not competitive with the Kindle, Nook, or Kobo. By the time Sony built the T1 many e-reader users were using other devices and the Sony became less of an option. Not to mention, it was still oorly marketed even after it dropped in price and is not priced competitivly outside of the US.

I hope that I am wrong and that Sony is staying in the e-book market but I have difficulty seeing it being profitable for them and an easy cut.

[fjtorres]

It's a bit early to be publishing Sony's Reader obituary.
But not too early to be composing it and keeping it handy: the T1 is a decent enough product at a decent enough price, so *of course* Sony will cut and run now. That is pretty much how they roll, no?

In the meantime, they keep pouring money into me-too TV efforts.

[ProfCrash]

As I understand it, it is only well priced in the US. People outside the US have complained that it is 50 pounds more expensive then a Kobo. That is a decent chunk of change.

Like I said, I hope I am wrong but I have a hard time seeing the T1 continue into the future. I think Sony was a trailblazer and screwed it up. They do have a track record of doing that.

[nesler]

It seemed like they had faithful customers in the early days, with the 500 and 505. By the time the 300/600/900 came out, Amazon was making a big splash, and the 350/650/950 got lost in the middle of the battle between Amazon and B&N.

Having a dedicated base of customers is nice, but you need market expansion, and Sony has failed to do that (plus, the competition is making a hell of a lot more money via ebooks than Sony is).

I think this was Sony's last shot at it (hence the major departure from their previous devices and tossing the multiple model strategy), and... it hasn't worked.

The last generation of Sony readers are amazing. I was sadly ignorant of them until the 350 refurbs went on sale for 70 bucks last year. With PRS+, those things are *AMAZING.* Sony made an amazing reader, but utterly failed at marketing it or developing a competitive bookstore... and then they went the cheap route, which is pretty disappointing in comparison.

They're boned.

[fjtorres]

Well, yeah; Sony was a trailblazer in eink readers.
They also screwed up.
It happens all the time.
"You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their backs."

They can join Rocketbook, Nuvomedia, and Franklin in the history books.
First chapter is over.
Second chapter is unfolding.
And a shakeout is coming: wouldn't surprise me if a Sony bug-out is the trigger.

[MrsJoseph]

I was told by some retailer that the T1's were on sale in prep of the release of a new model. Of course, I didn't believe that because the PRS models hardly ever went on sale...

One can only hope an update/new model is coming.

[ProfCrash]

I had not seen that rumor. I had read that people were told the T1's were being cleared out and not replaced. If they are not replacing the T1 but bringing in a T2 that would be a good thing.

[carpetmojo]

Hear we go again...... how long has the T1 been out ?

Anyone who likes Sony stuff, it might well be a case of "fasten your seatbelts please" - another up and down ride ahead......

[SeaKing]

It may be that Sony realized that they couldn't compete with what they had, so they went back to the drawing board.

I have had wonderful Sony equipment in the past, but lately, I can't seem to find anything that I want.
With me it used to be either Sony or JVC. I haven't bought any of them lately.

[frogi]

Much of Sony's product line was, for a long time, considered durable goods. Television technology (for example) had no significant change for about 3 decades. During that time, people paid a premium for a brand that would last.

That pricing model no longer works, and companies like Sony suffer while consumers buy disposable imports.

Smaller, short-lived items (such as ereaders) would actually be a better focus for Sony. Their marketing and planning gurus likely disagree with this, though.

[vivaldirules]

Frankly, while it wouldn't surprise me if Sony exited the ebook reader market sometime soon, we've been rumoring that at every opportunity here since the Kindle was released almost 4-1/2 years ago. And instead they would come out with a new product. I was really just wondering if someone had seen a media source that speculated on the subject. Hopefully, a 6% reduction is more an across-the-board cut to lower overall operating costs.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I had not seen that rumor. I had read that people were told the T1's were being cleared out and not replaced. If they are not replacing the T1 but bringing in a T2 that would be a good thing.

It would be better still if the new model didn't have a "T" in it. The series was only a bit less disasterous than the 700 series.

People got used to buying Sony readers knowing that book lists and collections would have alphabetic tabs to search through them quickly. The lack therof lost Sony's established grip (which Amazon and Nook had utterly failed to budge) on the heavy reader/collector market.

If they stay in the market, lets not have another subpar software that is orders of magnitude less capable than its predecessor.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Hopefully, a 6% reduction is more an across-the-board cut to lower overall operating costs.

It isn't.
It's mostly a targetted cut in their chemical & LCD divisions.
An across the board overhead reduction would hurt the few parts of the company generating revenue; what they really need to do is drop entire legacy product lines that mostly generate churn instead of profits and, probably, get out of TVs, which is what's bleeding them the most.

Whatever they do, they need to do it quick; they have a billion-dollar red ink blip coming for 2013: the launch of the PS4/Orbis console.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

The idea that Sony's ereader department is causing 10,000 layoffs is pretty laughable.
Sony has a lot of problems-the last of which is probably their e-readers.