Topic: What's next from Sony?

[F.O.Bean]

Over on Reddit I randomly was reading a thread about the Playstation 4 and it came up that Sony's electronic division is not turning a profit and actually costing them billions of dollars.

Apparently their insurance division is the real cash cow.  I was surprised to learn that.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-05-28/news/39580325_1_kazuo-hirai-electronics-business-trinitron

Interesting read, thanks!

[rastasean]

Over on Reddit I randomly was reading a thread about the Playstation 4 and it came up that Sony's electronic division is not turning a profit and actually costing them billions of dollars.

Apparently their insurance division is the real cash cow.  I was surprised to learn that.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-05-28/news/39580325_1_kazuo-hirai-electronics-business-trinitron

Insurance: the new cashcow. Early 2000s cashcow: financial planner.

[meursault]

HDR-MV1

http://www.engadget.com/gallery/sony-hdr-mv1-music-video-recorder/945959/#!slide=945959

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

HDR-MV1

http://www.engadget.com/gallery/sony-hdr-mv1-music-video-recorder/945959/#!slide=945959

Line in is a nice touch.

No external power is probably it's downfall for us. I can't imagine getting through an entire show on that tiny battery.

[voltronic]

Also max audio resolution is only 16/44 PCM, or AAC 48k.  While this is not from their "pro" division, I would have at least expected 24/48 PCM which is standard for DVD, and the video resolution of this would imply making bluray discs. 

My hope is that the new Zoom unit inspires Sony to make something similar but with the amazing bang for the buck we have all been enjoying from the M10.

[LikeASong]

Another ill-fated media format for which they'll refuse to admit defeat and will attempt to keep alive well past its sell-by date?

Spilled part of my coffee over the keyboard because of this comment, Gut. Hahahahahaha, epic.

[colargol]

...and there it is: http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=164484.msg2058172#msg2058172

[runonce]

Sony--and I personally find this very hard to take after a long time of liking their stuff, but it is apparently true--has been having great difficulty making any kind of profit in electronics manufacturing for the past several years, and reportedly is under considerable pressure from investors to get out of the business and to focus on media production, which is apparently the only sector in which they've been making much money.

Their electronics product line is already much smaller than what I remember from decades past, and I haven't seen anything new from their pro audio division in a very long time.

Sort of an off topic rant - but WHY has Sony abandoned the "WALKMAN" brand???

I know they make mp3 players with that brand - but why the hell arent the cell phones called "WALKMAN"

Next to the transistor radio - the cassette Walkman is one of the more important personal music/media devices, and a precursor the all the little cell/media devices we have today!

I think it would make perfect sense for a phone to bear the Walkman name..

[DSatz]

Hmm--I was in Germany a few weeks ago, visited the Sony store in Berlin and bought a media player there (NWZ-E384/LC). It says "Walkman" on the front of the box, and the "W." insignia is engraved on the front of the player.

The "Walkman" name has been around for ~40 years now, no? Judging from what I see marketing people do at a lot of U.S. companies, that makes it a sitting duck for someone with the bright idea of changing or abolishing it. And perhaps that even makes sense in the aggregate/long term, even though people over the median age don't like it (or maybe even because we don't).

[jerryfreak]

did someone say Walkman?

hi-fi shiznit hot off the presses:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/25/sony-unveils-bevy-of-walkman-devices/

24/192 flac with great audio hardware, sign me up.

considering how far standard tech has come in the last decade (see: http://kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-quality.htm ), these should sound great

good to see some mainstream alternatives to the high-priced boutique players like hifiman and colorfly

[jerryfreak]

a rough translation but this:

It corresponds to 5. Digital output

It corresponded to the digital output as a new audio output from the WM-PORT. In addition, we will be able portable headphone amplifier made by Sony for the "PHA-2", to digital output without sound quality music content.


reminds me of this:

Another ill-fated media format for which they'll refuse to admit defeat and will attempt to keep alive well past its sell-by date?

[F.O.Bean]

Sign me up for a ZX1

I have (1) 120gb Zune, (2) 160gb iPod Classics and I'd like to add (1) ZX1 to my arsenal!!!

[pohaku]

Needs more storage.  Like at least 250gb.  I rip in lossless and the 160gb iPod classic is too small.  More is better in this case.

[F.O.Bean]

Needs more storage.  Like at least 250gb.  I rip in lossless and the 160gb iPod classic is too small.  More is better in this case.

I agree! a few years back Toshiba was supposed to come out with a 250gb MP3 player, but I haven't heard about it since I NEED a 500gb MP3 player. That would make me one happy tapir

[pohaku]

Needs more storage.  Like at least 250gb.  I rip in lossless and the 160gb iPod classic is too small.  More is better in this case.

I agree! a few years back Toshiba was supposed to come out with a 250gb MP3 player, but I haven't heard about it since I NEED a 500gb MP3 player. That would make me one happy tapir

Let's be realistic here.  How old is the 160gb iPod classic?  I've had mine for quite some time. In that time, the cost of storage has dropped like a rock and big disk drives are plentiful and cheap.  I mean really.  We should be talking at least 1tb players, if not more.