In an interview with Nikkei Electronics Asia, Sony CEO Howard Stringer pledged that the company would use more open standards in the future, saying "If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple" in the music market.
Sure, and if Sony had created a music store, a desktop application, and a great device, it could have won that way too. But it didn't. Certainly, open technology would have helped to create some kind of ecosystem, but it wouldn't have solved the strategic problem of creating a holistic consumer experience. Nor would it have made a difference in the fact that Sony owns a huge library of music that Apple monetized far more efficiently while Sony fought for CDs to outlive MP3s.
Sony had many, many chances to use open standards and technologies for a wide variety of products and opted against in most cases. The company also gave up its massive lead in music players as Apple leaped ahead by creating a seamless user experience while Sony focused on that blue alien.
Sony is however leaning toward openness in the PlayStation Network (PSN) where the digital rights management is based on Marlin, an open scheme (yes, open DRM is an oxymoron) developed by consumer electronics companies and other companies that will allow other systems to participate in the PSN.
"What does all this mean?" he added. "Very simply, it means that Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one.
Hindsight is 20/20 and I am sure Stringer believes his statement to be true. But open is a relative term. Just because other companies will be able to interact with the PSN it doesn't mean that the rest of the world's developers will be able to participate in developing games or applications or creating a cottage industry as Apple has done for the iPhone.
Being open doesn't guarantee that a community or ecosystem will sprout up around a product. A company with Sony's coffers could do a lot more to make its devices and content accessible to a broad range of developers who would seed the market and make it more money.
Via Engadget
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.
Nielsen is out with its latest State of the Video Gamer report, based on data from the fourth quarter 2008. There's not many surprises, but some of the data is quite interesting, including the fact that "heavy" gamers tend to play video games during primetime TV hours and use time-shifting technologies, such as Tivo DVRs to catch up on shows later in the night.
This certainly makes me wonder why in-game advertising hasn't become more prevalent if Tv is competing against games for eyeballs.
Key takeaways from the report:
- More sophisticated consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 attract the more engaged console users, who are less likely to be watching television in Prime Time than users of other consoles.
- The PlayStation 2, while still leading all other consoles in total minutes of usage, continues to have the highest downward trending rate of usage. Trending data suggests by the end of 2009, the PlayStation 2 will no longer be the most used console in the United States.
- Females 25 years of age and older make up the largest block of PC game players accounting for 46.2 percent of all players and 54.6 percent of all game play minutes in December 2008.
- The most played games on the PC are card games from Microsoft, with the most played game being Solitaire with more than 17 million players for the month of December 2008.
- Females 55+ over index in terms of their PC game play versus all other demographic groups.
You can download the full State of the Video Gamer report here (PDF).
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The big shocker in the 2008 numbers is the fact that Nintendo sold nearly as many DS units as Wii units. DS sales accounted for nearly triple the amount of PS3 units sold. Who would have thought that Nintendo would become a dominant force again?
Total U.S. hardware sales for 2008
- Wii - 10,224,400
- Nintendo DS - 9,951,500
- Xbox 360 - 4,735,200
- PlayStation Portable - 3,829,300
- PlayStation 3 - 3,685,000
- PlayStation 2 - 2,106,100*
Lifetime U.S. hardware sales, as of December 2008:
- PlayStation 2 - 43.22 million
- Nintendo DS - 27.60 million
- Wii - 17.60 million
- PlayStation Portable 14.30 million
- Xbox 360 - 13.89 million
- PlayStation 3 - 6.94 million
Via Shacknews.
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