Digital Journal — Sony is one of those companies whose name alone holds attention. But in recent years, its cachet has lost momentum amidst fierce competition from Microsoft (in video games), Apple (in portable music players) and now, most recently, from Toshiba in the high-definition DVD format war.
But Sony is trying to paint a brighter picture of its recent Blu-ray problems, announcing today it will launch its first Blu-ray recorder in Japan in December. A 500GB recorder will sell for $2,250 US and a 250GB recorder will retail for $2,120 US.
Sony plans to make 10,000 units of the innovative recorders per month in the initial stage. “We consider the Blu-ray recorder a core product for people in the living room to enjoy high-definition broadcasting, high-definition photos and high-definition movies,” Sony Senior Vice President Kiyoshi Nishitani told Reuters.
Nishitani is probably double-crossing his fingers that the Blu-ray phenomenon takes off beyond expectations. Sony’s stock has fallen to a nine-month low, and its brand image has taken a beating in light of the seven million Sony-made PC batteries that have recently been recalled. Also, Sony said it plans to cut shipments of its PlayStation 3 console by half, and analysts predict the company will lose nearly $2 billion US on the PS3 by March 2007.
If anyone needs a boost in their product line, it’s Sony. While the Blu-ray players may not have whisked off the shelves as quickly as the company hoped, the recorder could jolt Sony out of its slump — at least overseas it could, as the United States is dominated by TiVo.
The recorders are a first for the Blu-ray camp, but it still might not be enough to pull headlines from Toshiba and HD-DVD who always seem to be one step ahead in product launches. Toshiba has now unveiled an HD-DVD write drive for notebooks, allowing it to record to standard DVD, HD-DVD and CD discs. All this while Sony still struggles to get out its first Blu-ray player.
There’s no easy ride for Sony in the next-gen DVD battle. So if Sony wants to recapture its market leader position, it’s high time the tech giant started winning over the public by giving them a product, without delay.
