The Prroblem with Sony

By: Bruce Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:35 AM

Sectors: Computer and Technology , Medical
Symbols: AAPL, MSFT, SNY
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle+articleid_2420155&title=The_Prroblem_with.html

Because of what I have written on here about Sony I have been accused many times of being a Nintendo or a Microsoft fanboy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I only report what I see. And what I see is a Sony that has lost its way.
因为我写的这些文字我已经好多次被指责为任天堂或者是微软的枪手了。殊不知恰恰相反，我只是报道我我的观点。而据我看来索尼有点找不到北。

The facts are very, very simple. In the Playstation one generation Sony had massive global domination, nobody came anywhere near them. In the Playstation two generation Sony were hugely dominant again. Nintendo and Microsoft were minnows in comparison. Then we come to the Playstation three (PS3) generation and suddenly the wheels fall off. Sony are running third and it very much looks like it is going to stay that way. Analysts and fanboys continually promise or hope that a revival in fortunes is just around the corner, but it never comes. So what went wrong:

事实是非常非常的简单。在Playstation一代的时代索尼占有全球市场的大量份额，别人都被远远的抛在了身后。Playstation二代索尼依然是市场的霸主。相比之下任天堂和微软只是些小鱼。然后我们到了Playstation三代的时代轮子突然掉了。索尼变成了老三并且看起来只能在这个位置呆着了。评论家和粉丝们不断的保证或者是希望马上会有一个财富的重新洗牌，但是这种事从来都没有发生。那什么地方出了问题呢：

• The cell processor, this was a huge mistake in many ways. Firstly it cost a fortune in development and putting into production, which is money that needs to be recovered. Secondly it delayed getting the PS3 to market, giving away huge competitive advantage. Thirdly, whilst very powerful, it is a very long way from being optimised for the job of running a console. Overall they would have been better buying an off the shelf generalised processor as they did for previous models and as their competitors did.
• 处理器，从很多方面来看这都是一个巨大的错误。首先开发投产就花掉不少钱，这些投入是需要收回的。其次它拖了PS3的上市时间，失去了非常好的竞争优势。第三个原因是虽然非常的强大，但是要拿来运行游戏机还需要很多优化。整体看来他们最好还是像做上一代的产品一样去买现成的通用处理器，他们的竞争对手也是使用的现成的。
  
• The graphics processor is a lot less powerful than the one in it’s main competitor’s machine. This effectively limits what the PS3 can do, no matter what the CPU and memory are doing. Fanboys blame the developers for being lazy and not putting enough work into PS3 games when the reality is that it is the machine itself that is holding the games back.
• 图像处理器比主要竞争对手机器上使用差多了。不管CPU和内存表现如何，这都会大大的限制PS3的整体性能。粉丝们常常抱怨开发者太懒，在PS3游戏开发上没有花足够的心思，拖慢游戏的其实是机器本身。
  
• BluRay. The Playstation 3 was used as a Trojan horse to get this technology standard accepted by the world. And at this it has succeeded. But at a terrible cost. It forced the price of the PS3 up sufficiently to stifle consumer demand whilst forcing Sony to absorb massive losses. It is strange that Sony nearly bet the company on this at a time when physical delivery of content is in steep decline. A phyrric victory indeed. If this were not enough, difficulties in putting BluRay into production contributed to the delays in getting PS3 to market.
• 蓝光。PS3当作推广这项技术的特洛伊木马。在推广蓝光技术方面它确实成功了。但是代价也不是一般的大。它一方面把PS3的价格抬到了令消费者无法接受的地步一方面还迫使索尼消化巨大的损失。奇怪的是索尼这次几乎把整个公司都压在了上面而实际的出货量却急剧的下降。这是一个得不偿失的胜利。如果这还不够，蓝光投入量产遇到的困难直接延迟了PS3的上市时间。
  
• The complex architecture of the PS3 makes it very difficult to develop content for. A lot more difficult than for it’s main competitors. This wasn’t helped by Sony releasing development tools that were also greatly weaker than those from its competitors. A double whammy that caused huge problems for games developers worldwide. Many games were delayed because the problems were so great, costing the game developers a fortune and depriving the marketplace of product.
• PS3复杂的结构给内容开发造成的严重的困难，比其他竞争者难的不是一点点。索尼发布的开发工具并没有解决这一问题，因为相比之下太弱啦。对于世界各地的开发者来说这是雪上加霜啊。不少游戏都因为这些令人头大的问题而延迟了，游戏开发者损失惨重，游戏机的市场表现也被拖累。
  
• Sony totally misread the way the market was going. They have clung to their hardcore gamer base and squandered the lead in casual gaming that they had with EyeToy and SingStar. Nintendo have come along with a simpler machine that has massively outsold the Sony PS3 with the simple tactic of providing entertainment that is accessible to a lot more people. With hindsight it looks so obvious, but Sony missed it completely. As a result Nintendo made a fortune and Sony lost a fortune.
• 索尼完全误读了市场的走向。他们盯住了发烧玩家但是放弃了他们在休闲游戏中的主导地位，就像他们曾经凭EyeToy和SingStar做到的。任天堂拿出来的是一款非常简单的机器，但是销量远远超过了索尼的PS3，他们的战略是提供让更多的人都可以玩的游戏。事后看来是如此的明显，但是索尼还是彻底地错过了这个机会。结果是任天堂狠狠地赚了一笔，而索尼狠狠的赔了一笔。
• Sony have been stretched for cash. They have made losses. The technology in the PS3 has cost a fortune and they are almost certainly still making a loss on every machine sold. They have been forced to raise new capital and to sell off bits of the company. So they have little room to manoeuvre. They cannot throw money at the PS3 problem. This whilst their two main competitors are rolling in money which they are both using to reinforce their positions.
• 索尼资金本来就比较紧张，现在又赔钱。PS3上的技术花了不少钱，每卖掉一部机器他们都在赔钱。他们被迫筹集新的资本，一点一点的把公司卖掉。这样他们也没有多少回旋的余地了。他们没有办法在PS3问题上继续砸钱。同时两外两家竞争者开始有钱进来，他们可以利用赚到的钱巩固自己的位置。
• Lack of exclusive content. Both competing machines have a lot more exclusive AAA content. This is a massive USP when the reason for buying these machines is to play content on them. Microsoft have invested heavily into a very impressive catalogue of exclusives and have managed to seduce some former major Sony exclusives into becoming cross platform. This alone has caused an immense shift in competitive advantage.
• 缺乏独有的内容。另外两种机器都有自己独有的内容。这也是一个卖点，选择一台机器的主要原因就是可以玩定制的专有游戏。微软花了很多钱开发了一系列的用于自己游戏机的专有游戏，并且还把一些索尼独有游戏吸引过来做成跨平台游戏。单单这一点就把竞争优势争取了过来。
  
• Sony have messed up very badly with online. This is a real killer and comes from them being a hardware company whilst Microsoft is a software company. So Microsoft understood the importance of online and invested massively in Live. And that investment is paying them back enormously. So they continue to invest and Live is becoming one of the biggest phenomenons ever in gaming. Giving customers a massive USP whilst generating a lot of revenue for Microsoft. And it is growing with almost unbelievable impetus, both in content and in users. The Sony competitor, Home, is still not released after multiple delays and is now several years behind. It will be nearly impossible for Sony to pull back such a huge lead.
• 索尼的联网做的也非常的糟糕。对于单纯做硬件的厂家遇到微软这样转供软件的厂家联网就成了后者的杀手锏。微软了解联网的重要性，并且在Live上投入很多。这些投入带来的收益也是巨大的。因此他们可以继续的投入Live也成了游戏史上一个最大的热点。对于用户来说这是一个卖点，同时也给微软带来了不错的回报。无论是在内容方面还是在用户数量上它的增长速度是惊人的。而索尼的应战工具Home在三番五次的延迟之后至今尚未上市，而几年的时间已经过去了。对于索尼来说要把这样有影响力的市场领导者挤下来几乎不可能。
  
• Sony have huge, world class, divisions in many areas. Telephones, Film making, Portable Music (they invented this) and Console Gaming. Yet these divisions appear not to talk to each other. So a potential huge strength has become a weakness. The film division isn’t used to place all their unique IP on the consoles for instance. And outsiders who are less constrained can enter Sony’s markets and win. Hence the iPhone which could and should have been a Sony product yet instead has come from a company, Apple, that just a few years earlier had no stake whatsoever in consumer electronics.
• 索尼的产品在不少领域都是世界一流的。电话，电影制作，随身听（他们的发明）和游戏机。但是这些产品好像互不相干。因此本来应该是强项的一点反而成为了弱点。The film division isn’t used to place all their unique IP on the consoles for instance.而局外人因为没有这些约束反而很容易打进索尼的市场并且成功。本来应该是索尼推出的iPhone却贴上了一家称为苹果的牌子，而这家公司几年前根本就没有涉足过消费型电子产品的市场。

With all that against them it is amazing that Sony have sold as many PS3s as they have. The reason they have done so is because of the impetus of the brand and the loyalty of a large section of their user base. The majority of console users have yet to upgrade to this generation, there is still a huge untapped market of non console households and we have yet to reach the $199 sweet spot when the bulk of sales occur. So there is still hope for Sony, which is what the analysts are grasping for. The problem for Sony now is that the sheer weight of USPs is against them. A gulf that further widened this E3 where Nintendo and Microsoft forged ahead whilst Sony were distinctly lacklustre.

在有这么多问题的情况下索尼居然还能卖出这么多的PS3真是令人吃惊。他们做到的这个的原因在于这个品牌的号召力和巨大的忠实的用户群体。大部分游戏机用户都把机器更新到了下一代，但是还没有拥有游戏机的家庭仍不在少数，如果有大规模的促销我们也会接近199美金美妙的一点。对索尼来说希望还是有的，这也是不少评论家试目以待的。但是现在困扰索尼的问题是卖点完全不在他们一边。这次E3展会上任天堂和微软齐头并进，索尼显得十分暗淡，被落的越来越远。