So Pathetic, So Sony

Sony Exiting eBook Markets in Europe and Australia

It’s not surprising given the closures in the North America market, but there was still slight hope that Sony wouldn’t give up on ebook reading for good—that is clearly not the case anymore.

This is another sad tale of Sony giving up on something that they had an integral part in starting. It’s quite pathetic, really. Now ereading fans will lose what little respect they had left for Sony. Nobody likes a quitter.

This is a company that didn’t even know how to start.

Once again, those who were young at Sony said from the beginning the Reader should have wireless. They were overruled by the veteran Suits.

And here we are today.

Everyone involved in this fiasco should resign or be fired.

Previously here:

Sony’s Foretold Disaster Comes True

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Amazon Finally Wins In eBooks

Kobo objects to potentially “devastating” Competition Bureau agreement on agency pricing

By analogy, in the US, when Agency Lite was brought into existence, Kobo saw its net revenues steadily decline. Kobo has since stopped investing in marketing in the US, closed its office in Chicago and is focusing on other markets. Its market share and revenues are now negligible there.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Well, there it is. What I’ve thought was the case for at least the past year.

B&N’s Nook division goes into a death-spiral of losses.

Sony pulls out and sends it eBook customers to Kobo.

Now Kobo is saying it has basically written off the American market.

That leaves Amazon as undisputed winner.

Tell me again how ePub 3 is going to save everyone from Amazon…

Sony Keeps Reader, Dumps PCs

Sony sells its VAIO PC business, is splitting TV arm into a separate company

Meanwhile, in Japan:

Sony is a company that’s lost its cool factor. They might be doing some seriously exquisite tech that sets them apart from everyone else, but they don’t seem to be able to effectively communicate it in a way that excites people.

It’s a very strange world where I can get excited over Chinese tablets that will never be sold in American stores yet news of Sony products makes me yawn — and Sony’s prices make me think they’re delusional.

Same-day update: It looks like the Reader isn’t going to be around either:

Sony closing e-bookstore, migrating customers to Kobo.

— Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) February 6, 2014

Sony Abandons The Country That Made The Sony Reader Possible

Confirmed: The Sony PRS-T3 Won’t Be Released in the United States

Originally a flop in Japan as the Librie, it was the American Sony division that resurrected the device as the Sony Reader.

The Librie was also the device that inspired Jeff Bezos to create the Kindle.

While Sony bounced from incompetency to incompetency with its Reader, Amazon went from strength to strength with its Kindle.

And so here we are.

I’m not even going to bother to post all the related links from this and my other blogs. I’ve ignored the Reader for quite some time, so just let it rest in peace.

The Sharks Go After Sony

American Investor Targets Sony for a Breakup

The hedge fund manager, Daniel S. Loeb, is pressing Sony into spinning off part of its entertainment arm, which includes one of the biggest film studios in Hollywood and one of the largest music labels in the world, responsible for movies like “Skyfall” and artists like Taylor Swift.

Sony’s entry into the entertainment business was strictly to add value to its electronics business.

It never worked out that way because the entertainment tail wagged the electronics dog, insisting on DRM, regional rights, and other things that just make no sense in a digital world without borders and with the capability to do immediate, worldwide release.

Yes, Size Does Matter

2006: Digital Life: What I Saw (Sony Reader):

The Oh. My. God. Moment came in picking it up. This is a masterpiece of design and engineering. It is what a totable computer should be. This is what the Nokia 770 and all UMPCs should be like. Just this exact size and thickness. This is science-fiction come to life. It is worth your time to get to any store that has it just to hold it.

2013: iPad Mini Sales Overtaking iPad Sales Faster Than Apple Expected

Sales of the iPad mini are cannibalizing sales of the iPad, according to a report from NPD DisplaySearch. January shipments of tablet panels between 7 and 9 inches eclipsed shipments of larger panels, indicating an unexpected shift in consumer preference for a smaller form factor tablet.

Photo of paper models:

Left-right: Sony Reader 500, iPad Mini, Sony Reader 505

Obviously the Reader is now too small. But there was nothing else like it at that size back then. I was in the ballpark, though.

Shock: Sony Does Something Right!

I’ve ripped Sony apart again and again.

Really, I’d given up hope of them ever producing something that I’d want.

So I was really shocked by this video that Charbax did of the new VAIO Tap 20 PC at IFA.

This machine is brilliant:

Sony’s Death Spiral

Sony to axe 10,000 jobs in turnaround bid: Nikkei

Japan’s Sony Corp is cutting 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its global workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

First, Howard Stringer should have never been let near Sony, never mind being put in charge of it.

Second, the Japanese are too damned self-effacing for their own good. Howard Stringer would have been booted out on his fat ass within two years of his mis-management had he been here in America.

Third, notice the word I emphasized: profit. That’s nothing more than temporarily making the books look good. It says zero about long-term sustainability.

Fourth, this is not going to save Sony. Throwing overboard ten thousand people is an admission of defeat, period. That tells me that Sony has been so gutted and so bollixed that whatever good ideas might still be inside that company have no chance of getting any attention.

Fifth, it also tells me that those currently in charge of Sony wouldn’t recognize a good idea if it bit them in the ass and starting draining their blood by the pint. This might now be in the very DNA of Sony, since there were people inside Sony who advocated the Sony Reader should have had wireless from the beginning, yet were overruled and then ignored as Amazon triumphed.

Sixth, Sony used to be all about the display. Who has that reputation now? Samsung! Losing a core business like that is simply inexcusable. It would be like Nokia losing its phone operating system (oops!).

Seventh, all Sony is doing these days is Me-Too and zombie tech. Me-Too: Android devices that have nothing to recommend them. Zombie tech: How long can they keep milking PlayStation (which was created by someone who was forced out of Sony, Ken Kutaragi!).

Eighth, Sony has become legacy corporate. It’s now more interested in preserving the jobs of those who lead it than moving the company into a glorious future. Hunkering down instead of risking is little different from just being dead.

Previously here:

This Was Sony

This Was Sony

The company that has become largely irrelevant is in the news again today, with a piece alternately touting its possible revival or its imminent death by financial vultures.

Special Report: The Sony Schism

Through the magic of Google Books, let’s take a brief look at Sony in history.

Sony Reader WiFi: Sloppy Screen Redraw

I noticed this in the initial videos from a trade show months ago but thought it was a matter of pre-release software.

Now it’s been confirmed in more than one video that Sony is doing something bizarre in its handling of eInk screen refresh that neither the Amazon Kindle nor Barnes & Noble Nook do.

The following are screensnaps from a video posted by The eBook Reader blog: