LAS VEGAS (MarketWatch) After two years of heavy restructuring and cost cutting, Sony Corp. is seeking to demonstrate its product-making prowess with an array of new electronics products focused on 3-D and Internet-connected devices to tap into its movies, music and videogames.
Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer embarked on an overhaul that has seen the company close or sell factories and increase outsourcing. The moves are designed to make the sprawling conglomerate more nimble, so it can adjust quickly to the breakneck pace of the consumer electronics industry.
While those restructuring measures have paid off with an improved bottom line, the company has yet to launch a product that puts a stamp on the turnaround.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sony unveiled intriguing 3-D product prototypes. One, a futuristic-looking gadget called “Headman,” wraps around a person’s eyes with a small screen for each eye that creates the illusion of depth.
The Japanese electronics conglomerate said it was going to make 3-D “personal” with compact 3-D camcorders, a 3-D digital camera and a Vaio PC laptop capable of viewing 3-D images. Meanwhile it showed off how it aims to position its online video and music delivery platform, Qriocity, to be Sony’s answer to Apple Inc.’s(AAPL 334.00, +2.71, +0.82%) iTunes for a wide range of devices.
More than any other “connected” product, Sony touted the potential benefits of marrying the television with the Internet. It’s a theme echoed by nearly every TV maker at the show, but Sony has aggressively pursued the market since becoming the first manufacturer to launch an Internet TV running Google Inc.’s (GOOG 609.07, +6.95, +1.15%) television platform.
“TVs are no longer passive devices, but gateways to an enormous dynamic world of content delivered whenever and wherever the consumers want it,” Stringer said during the media event.
Sony also said it had a partnership with Time Warner Cable Inc.(TWC 67.35, -0.03, -0.04%) through which the cable operator would deliver content over the Internet to Sony’s Web-connected televisions. The partnership comes as online video delivery threatens the grip of traditional cable and satellite TV operators.
Meanwhile, Sony still pushed heavily on 3-D technology, a major theme of last year’s show. However, the technology has not taken off as fast as the industry had expected but Sony said 3-D is the future of content.
As a “glimpse into the future,” Hiroshi Yoshioka, the head of Sony’s consumer products and devices group, said Sony has developed an all-in-one 3-D Blu-Ray player with a 10-inch, glasses-free screen, as well as prototypes of a 56-inch, 46-inch and 24.5 inch glasses-free 3-D model.
The 24.5-inch glasses-free 3-D television uses an organic light-emitting diode display, considered a next-generation screen technology because it is thinner, brighter and uses less energy than today’s LCDs. Yoshioka did not give a launch timetable for those products.
Sony’s mobile phone joint-venture, Sony Ericsson, also said it would launch a new Android-based Xperia Arc smartphone, which comes with a 4.2-inch display and is slightly curved in the back, in the first quarter of 2011.
Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sony-unveils-personal-3-d-product-prototypes-2011-01-06
