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Sony takes the heat: problems on the inside? |
Listed in: PS3 Tags: Europe, Howard Stringer, Japan, playstation 3 updates, Sony
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A few weeks ago, we remember the news of Sony-made batteries exploding in laptops, double for the unfortunate ones that went bang in airplanes. Sony was quick to explain this incident as the result of metal particles touching the battery components, leading to a short-circuit.Uh-huh, looks like they saw the Mythbusters episode on exploding mobiles too.
Before that, we'll remember their announcement of delays for the PS3's Europe release, originally slated for November, pushing the date to March next year, at an initial 500,000 units.
And while the news holds about its November 11 release in Japan, and November 17 in America, there's again disputes of the numbers being released: 4 million was the original release quota. It hasn't been too promising, with 100,000 units in Japan, and a further 400,000 units in America.
We're not trying to diss Sony, so please put those pitchforks and torches down. What's being said is that with all the ugly news (Their Bravia line's healthy,so it ain't that ugly) we've seen so far, could it be indicators of bigger problems this electronics giant is facing internally?
Corporate Management
"Stringer living in the United States instead of in Tokyo, where the company headquarters is located, is not helping him take the initiative," journalist Yasunori Tateishi said about Howard Stringer, Sony's current CEO who took the helm in June last year. Tateishi, author of "Song Inside Story", further explained that it was due to this communication problem that added fuel to the fire in Sony's battery incident.
Lack of communication in the higher-ups doesn't stay there, unfortunately, and this problem also found itself visible in the lack of coordination apparent in Sony's divisions. Liberal thinking and independence are premiums in Sony workforce, but thanks in part to the lack of communication, this free-thinker atmosphere may have interfered with Sony's capability to keep it its image as a forerunner in electronics, and its divisions to work as a single, coherent organism.
Layoffs
For the last three years, there's been news of layoffs in Sony, amounting to nearly 30,000 workers being told to pack up and leave, cutting down its original workforce from 182,000 in 2001 to 158,500 last year. Officially, Sony reports this was part of a program to transfer important personnel to more profitable projects, and putting less energy into less promising projects. Tateishi points out this may not be the case, saying that even people from promising divisions such as their flat-screen TV (Brevia's part of this divison) were being laid off.
"The restructuring plan has sliced off both muscle and fat, depriving Sony of its 'stamina' as a company," Tateishi said.
With their PS3 launching this November 17, it remains to be seen just what could happen in the following months after the release. Indeed, a lot rests on Sony's little Blu-Raywunderkind, and we wait in excitement (and plain nervousness) over what this will spell in the console wars.
Via japantimes
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Comments
There is a shortage on Blue laser diodes. That's a well known fact not just for the Sony PS3, but for Blue Ray players as well.
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It`s just repeating what has been out there for weeks.
Who ever is running this site should look into improving the quality of the articles.
It`s turning into pointless babbling.
Soon people will have to weed throught tons of useless BS to get to the real news.
If you don`t believe it , come back in a few weeks.
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Heres some real Ps3 news:
I just saved a bundle on car insurace by switching to GEICO.
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as I've heard from a Universal Employee (Universal = HD DVD) is that the blue-ray diode they produced got some problems reading european (PAL) DVD's (that would also explain why only the european region got delayed on the PS3 launch)
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I'd like to have my PS3 work as a grill... I dunno why it's such a joke lol.
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A rip of slash dot's comment system also.
The articles are poor and misleading.
I almost forget why I come to this site.
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So what have Sony been doing since then? What was stopping Sony from producing Blue-ray drives in preparation for the console months in advance? Especially if you believe their claim that the delay was due to AACS only and not the hardware.
If shortages of the blue laser diodes are a problem NOW, then there's no way the PS3 could have launched in the spring (aside from the fact that the games clearly were not ready).
For what it's worth, I believe in the reasons given for the PS3 shortage for launch, but it follows a long list of lies (for want of a better word) and broken promises from Sony regarding the PS3 launch, so it's natural for gamers to be suspicious of anything Sony has to say about the PS3 today.
Hence the conspiracy theories.
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