[Rumori] Sony Video Chief Admits Strategic Mistakes

[matt davignon]

Well, this is satisfying news!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&ncid=738&e=4&u=/ap/20050121/ap_on_hi_te/japan_sony

TOKYO - Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other 
gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment 
content, the head of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).'s 
video-game unit acknowledged Thursday.

Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said he and 
other Sony employees have been frustrated for years with management's 
reluctance to introduce products like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, mainly 
because the Tokyo company had music and movie units that were worried about 
content rights.

Now, Sony's divisions are finally beginning to work together and share a 
common agenda, Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.

"It's just starting," he told reporters. "We are growing up."

High-ranking Sony officials have rarely publicly said their proprietary 
views were a mistake. Kutaragi, who has long been viewed as a candidate to 
lead Sony, was unusually direct in acknowledging Sony had made an error and 
blaming proprietary concerns from its entertainment division.

Sony's music players initially did not support MP3 files and only played 
Sony's own format called Atrac.

Kutaragi said Sony's original spirit of innovative technology had grown 
"diluted."

"We have to concentrate on our original nature — challenging and creating," 
he said.

Once the powerhouse of global electronics, exemplified in its Walkman, Sony 
has lost some of its glamour lately, losing out in profitability and market 
share to cheaper Asian rivals.

Kutaragi — known as the "Father of the PlayStation" for making the game 
machine a pillar of Sony's business — said the new handheld, PSP or 
PlayStation Portable, will grow into a global platform for enjoying music 
and movies as well as games.

Sony is boosting production to one million a month this spring to keep up 
with demand for the PlayStation Portable, which has sold 800,000 since going 
on sale Dec. 12 in Japan, Kutaragi said. It is set to go on sale in the 
United States and Europe this spring.