Stringer: Sony 'Innovation' Key To Future

Author: by David Jenkins, Simon Carless

Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer has revealed new plans to more closely integrate the PlayStation 3 with the company’s other electronics products, as part of a new business plan that will see it connect to not just the PSP, but mobile phones and other devices. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Stringer, who has been running the electronics giant since 2005, commented of his longer-term plans for the entire business: "The next cycle is actual innovation." This follows cost-cutting across many of Sony's businesses - though largely not the PlayStation business, which has racked up increasing losses through the launch of the PlayStation 3, but is starting to see some momentum following multiple hardware price-cuts. As reported by Bloomberg, Stringer also revealed some interesting sales statistics, claiming that the company is currently selling around 200,000 PlayStation 3 consoles in Europe each week and 40,000 to 50,000 a week in Japan. In addition, as mentioned by the Associated Press, Stringer reconfirmed that Sony's PlayStation Network will be expanded to offer other kinds of content, and open to non-Sony media content - but did not give a timetable for this. The exec also commented on the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD next-gen optical disc battle, noting that the Sony-backed, PlayStation 3-included Blu-Ray appeared to be ahead thus far, but the battle is far from won. Stringer particularly commented: "We have momentum... but that's all we have at the moment."