Sony hits play for new game plan

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a lot from it and are slowly introducing updates. Major changes, they say, will arrive by the middle of the year.

"Whatever failings we've had in music, we've got to move quickly to solve them in video," Stringer said. "While we may be behind the eight ball on delivery of music, on video, we have plenty of time to improve and grow faster."

The question is: Will consumers take to portable video like they have to portable music?

An early Sony foray into portable video, a TV Walkman called the Watchman, flopped. But times are different now, and with music, Sony has a template for what can work.

Other companies, meanwhile, are working on similar services and devices. Microsoft has developed a version of Windows Media Center for portable devices from Samsung and Creative with content services from CinemaNow. Reception has been cool because there hasn't been much content for devices--at least, in these early stages. The entrance of a company like Sony, with its extensive entertainment libraries, could change that.

As for Sony, key missteps by the electronics division, the largest contributor to the company's overall revenue, is leading to a new sense of urgency. The electronics industry is plagued by shrinking margins and increasing competition. At the same time, Sony was late to market in two product categories it has traditionally dominated--televisions (it did not identify the flat-panel television craze early), and hard drive-based portable audio players (it only recently came out with units, and it finally decided to support MP3 files in its players).

Years of bickering between Sony groups has allowed companies that weren't on Sony's map five years ago to dominate the market.

While Sony still believes it has advantages because of its diverse properties, those advantages are deteriorating. For example, its once sterling brand, while still among the tops in the United States, is waning in its native Japan, as well as in China.

However, executives believe more companywide cooperation will help prevent miscues such as Apple taking over the portable audio player market, which once was the domain of Sony.

"We were well aware of the changes in the (player) market, and we were very clear on how to address those changes. We just didn't move fast enough," Wiser said.

With a common understanding and better communication between divisions, Sony executives hope to make improved performance not just a matter for its electronics business, but something the whole company can profit from.