Long ago, Sony was Apple. For years, the Japanese consumer electronics giant was acknowledged for its innovation as much as Apple is today. It commercialized the transistor radio with the TR-63 and popularized the console gaming market with the PlayStation.
It initiated the compact disc (with Philips) and created Blu-ray. Moreover, byi itself it created the portable music device market with the Walkman, twenty years before Steve Jobs reinvented it for the digital age with Apple’s iPod.
Sony was famous for quality, which allowed it to maintain healthy margins. Demand for the company’s products underlined Japan’s export-led economic boom between the 1960s and 1980s.
But Sony frittered away its lead — and markets like digital music players that it should have ruled. Business magazines have featured countless versions on what went wrong. Management books have been written on the subject.
For years now, Sony has reported atrocious financial losses as it failed to come up with compelling new products. (A strong yen aggravated the situation.)
Quietly, though, under the leadership of Sony’s new CEO, Kazuo Hirai — he took the reins from Briton Howard Stringer in April 2012 — the company has begun turning out amazing product one after the another. From cellphones to laptops, and from tablets to consoles, Sony seems to have revived its old winning formula. And sales figures and projections suggest strong upturn in core areas such as televisions, where it has struggled in a competitive market, and in smartphones.
Last week, it reported its first full-year profit in four years – and told shareholders it looks ahead to further improvements in the current financial year. From a loss of ¥457bn a year ago, Net income for 2013 was ¥43bn. Since the beginning of this year, Sony’s share price has almost doubled.
Source:
http://www.kindletechno.com/sony-gets-its-mojo-back.html