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Sony gets some good news, for a change |
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Oct 02, 2007 at 12:09 PM |
For many moons, it seemed like there was little if any good news coming from Sony.
Manufacturing woes on multiple fronts, weaker-than-desired financials, lagging Playstation sales, layoffs, and rumors of fab selloffs have been plaguing the iconic Japanese company. But Akio Morita's legacy got a shot in the arm the past week or so, with several positive or at least promising developments.
Two new partnership deals could help Sony on the LCD and chipmaking fronts. The decision to consolidate their two panel joint ventures with Toyota should cut costs, improve manufacturing efficiencies, and make the new entities more competitive. Focused on fabbing low-temperature polysilicon thin-film transistor (LTPS-TFT) LCDs, the new company will be established officially on Dec. 1, with Sony holding the lion's share at 86%.
In the memory IC arena, Sony joins Qimonda in the newly formed (and strangely named) Qreatic Design. (What's up with the "'Q' not followed by 'u'" names anyway?) The 50:50 j.v., which will focus on design of embedded and "customer-specific" DRAMs for consumer and graphics apps, will kick things off by the end of the year in a new Tokyo design center with 30 people from the two partners. Sony's Tsuyoshi Kashiwagi will be Qreatic's president and CEO, while Qimonda's Thomas Seifert takes the chairman's gavel. The infusion of energy and collaborative talent bodes well for Sony's future efforts in the "design for non-PC apps" space.
But the coolest jolt of positive energy from Sony comes with its just-launched XEL-1, the first commercially available organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) display--based TV. The 11-in-diagonal, 3-mm-thick device will start off in limited release to the Japanese market (monthly production is set at just 2000 units), at a high-end price point of about $1740. (Boy, would I love to be in Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric City" neighborhood, when the gizmos hit the stores on Dec. 1!)
"Some people have said attractive products are slow to come at Sony, despite its technological strength," Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told a news conference at its Tokyo headquarters, according to Reuters. "I want this world's first OLED TV to be the symbol of the revival of Sony's technological prowess. I want this to be the flag under which we charge forwards to turn the fortunes around."
Whether the OLED-based TVs will eventually achieve the kind of "It" status of the Walkman and PSP remains to be seen. The challenges of developing and manufacturing large-form-factor OLED displays are daunting, and the steep price limits the devices appeal to the higher end of the consumer spectrum. But OLEDs' super-sharp picture quality and fast-image-capture capability have a huge upside, if Sony (and other companies in the hunt) can fabricate the backplane-less devices in volume, at low defect densities and high yields (a touchy issue in other parts of Sony's manufacturing chain), with enhanced reliability and lifetimes.
But that's a big if. Still, Morita-san's corporate offspring have a few reasons to smile, for a change.
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