I left sony nearly a year ago, and it's astonishing how quiet things have been. There were some interesting things in the pipeline when I was there, but I've not seen any of them break the light of day. Think about it, how many big sony products have there been in the last 12 months? The only really active arm of the business has been in gaming, with the launch of a slimmed down PS3 and a new PSP, but the rest of the company has been slowly drifting into the shadows. When was the last time anyone was in awe of a Cybershot or Bravia product, oh and SonyEricsson anyone? Anyone?
I'm not sure why this is, but I have my hunches.I think that sony has a problem with its product planning team. The designers I worked with in Sony were smart people, some of them were very smart, but the product planning team left a lot to be desired. For the uninitiated, a product planning team (often called a portfolio team) are tasked with bringing together R&D, market and competitor analysis to plan what products to design over the next 12 to 24 months. In my experience the sony product planners are a panicked bunch. Rather than planning a long-term vision based on clear insights and emerging technologies, they panic and worry too much about the current market and competitor shifts. I recall a project I worked on in 2007 which changed direction so many times, and had so many features added in response to competitor products, that by the time of launch it was a confused mess. Another trait of product planners is to grab onto spurious features and promote them to the USP of any new launch. This was brought into clarity once again by the launch of the Vaio Type P, designed by an ex-colleague of mine. Whilst I'm not really up to speed with the netbook design world, I know a dodgy bit of positioning when I see it. It's a nice enough product, and I'm sure it has it's niche, but the headline attached to it is 'pocketable'. The press launch below is intended to make that point.
I don't think I need to point out the flaws in this. It really smacks of the product planning and marketing teams missing the point. The form factor is interesting, and the design looks OK from what I've seen, but by trying to call it 'pocketable', the product is greeted with derision. Sony need to have strength in their convictions if they are to succeed. A clear brief from the beginning of a programme, based on real needs means that a coherent product is developed, and the core benefit is clearly communicated. Shame sony, such a shame.
Two words; Sony Sports.
Where the hell is that eh?
I saw a canary yellow waterproof camera at the airport he other day and got excited... it was made by Samsung of someone... not Sony.
Falling off a cliff is what they are doing...
Posted by: charlie gower | October 14, 2009 at 02:53 PM
Steve Jobs manilla envelope = Good
Small pockets and big notebook = Muggers paradise.
I can just imagine the meeting where they came up with that!
Posted by: mike | October 15, 2009 at 12:59 PM