"...Hirai and his deputies are now open to options including sales and joint ventures for its money-losing TV and mobile phone operations..."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/0...0UM09H20150112

By leaving the TV market, Sony would be following in the footsteps of many other companies including Pioneer, Sharp, JVC and Philips. An exit from the mobile phone market would mirror steps taken by Nokia, Philips, Siemens, Alcatel and others.

Are these logical steps for Sony or essential areas for it to be in?

It's hard to know - both Sony and Panasonic are losing money on TV sales, and have for a considerable time - they can't compete with the lower quality of Samsung/LG and the cheaper brands.

Sony have been using LG screens for some time, as you know. Samsung screens are better than LG's. They all use so many parts from so many manufacturers that it's hard to get a thoroughbred in any brand.
I've just installed a Sony for my Father and while its a very good set, the picture isn't as good as my Samsung TVs.
The build quality doesn't come across as any better than Samsung. I think Sony have been caught and in some cases, overtaken by the others. It'll be a shame if they quit though, competition is what drives it all forward in the end.

The screens in Sony sets have been branded 'Sony' for a good while now, no idea where they are sourced as the only branding is Sony - presumaly they may be sourced from various places?. The only LG branded ones I've seen were a VERY long time ago.

Prior to that they used mostly S-LCD screens, from a joint venture with Samsung.


It's not a question of component 'make' but of component 'quality', with Samsung renowned for their use of low quality cheap components in the past (can't comment on current ones, as you don't find out until they start failing).


We install hundreds, and find the pictures better than Samsung - and this is also shown in the shop in side by side comparisons.


Presumably you're not a service engineer?, the build quality and reliability of Sony TV's is far higher than Samsung (as is Panasonic) - we get hardly any back for repair (despite having thousands under five year warranties). Biggest problem (to the extent of almost the ONLY problem) is LCD panel failures.

No..Not a service engineer (as you know). What's more I've never had the need to employ one either.
So, I can only go on experienced reliability and picture quality.. Which is what most people rely on. Also why so many people still buy Sony based on their experienced reliability.
I'm not saying they are not the most reliable, but, that the others have caught up. I think Samsung learned from the capacitors fiasco. That's well behind them now though.
Sony were using LG panels in some of their models last year. I think the IPS ones.
Sony might be OK since it's stopped all R&D for OLED technologies and is concentrating on Quantum dot technology. 4K is the future and they seem to have a good start. I certainly wouldn't say I'll never buy a Sony. It would be a shame to see them out of the TV market. Seems they make more on their life insurance business than TV's..
My Father loves his (apart from the Menu system which is not too intuitive!!}

If they did indeed 'earn' they are VERY, VERY slow learners

As they continued to use the same known crap capacitors for many years, despite massive warranty failures and the corresponding "no spares available" in well under two years.

In fact even slower learners than that - as they fitted the same crap capacitors in the old Grundig Sky digibox receivers (Samsung built the PSU's for Grundig) which failed i large numbers (nice little earner though )

Yes, but no good living in the past.....They don't now, which is the point...

Absolutely logical - they've already announced they're pulling out of the computer market and are trying to sell the Vaio division.

The consumer electronics market is cut-throat, with costs being driven down. I can easily see Sony doing what Philips have done and selling their TV, Audio and Mobile divisions off and simply being a licensed brand.

Be interesting to see who'd buy them - TV could be picked up by Beko (who Sony got to produce some of their sets), Audio, who knows. Mobile - possibly Hauwei or HTC simply to gain access to the brand.

Sony will focus on profitable areas - which are usually not the consumer focused ones.

Rather misleading - Sony bought one series of portables from Beko - the KDL-19/22BX series (the only badged TV's Sony have ever sold). It was done to maintain a presence in the portable market while they brought out their own series of new portables.

However, they have now dropped portables entirely - smallest in the range is 32 (which I suppose is pretty well a portable these days anyway ).

Since the mid 1990's Panasonic and Sony should have stuck to producing mid to high end products only and got out of the budget arena where they've not made any profits for a couple of decades. They've always been hell bent on making products for all budgets and they haven't made any money doing that for years and years. They thought having a market prescence in all areas was more important than making a profit....

If they made some top end products and concentrated on a limited range then maybe they'd have more luck, forget all the cheap end products etc. I know this didn't work for Pioneer but who knows?!

Sony Sky boxes had CapXon capacitors -- I have one in the loft somewhere, dead through failed power supply (probably sat with the Grundig exhibiting the same problem).

I can't recall Sony sky boxes having CapXon capacitors?, but it's certainly possible? - however, they didn't go high ESR so I never replaced any - it's normally a S/C secondary rectifier that kills them, I've changed lot's of them (and is probably what's wrong with yours).

However, they weren't very good Sky boxes - only advantage was their slim design, and optical out (for those who wanted it).

The notorious ones made by Thomson had them. Google Thomson Sky box capacitors for a large number of hits

The original Freesat non recording box (Humax Foxsat-HD) also used them. Afaik the later HDR-Foxsat did not. My Foxsat-hdr (still working) from 2008 certainly did not.

I didn't dig too deep into the problem -- as you say they weren't the best boxes, and I had mine for the optical out. I'd left it lying around after it fell into disuse, and I checked it and a few other boxes before putting them on eBay. PSU failed on it and a Grundig, so they went on the junk pile (I opened it up to check for obvious problems then decided it wasn't worth fixing so left it -- they're not worth much working). Certainly had a few CapXon caps on the power unit, and I just put it down to those.

As did the Grundig boxes (with Samsung made PSU's), Thomson of course bought the Sky box business from Grundig.

It's sad to say, but Sony has morphed from a technology leader in to a marketing company. What's missing though is those exciting products to market that it had when it was a technology company. Where's today's versions of the Handycam, Walkman, Trinitron TV, SuperBeta. Each of those products rocked the world as much as Apple iPod. I know there's literal modern equivalents of each. The point is where's the fresh thinking and innovation that Sony used to bring to market? Where are the products that change the landscape?

The last really big shake-up product IMO was PS3 because it included a Blu-ray drive.

I don't want Sony to exit the TV business. But with nothing really special in its midrange product, and 4K going mainstream in a "me too" battle of thinness rather than picture quality then is there anything truly unique about the brand or it's offerings when viewed against a sea of very similar product?

???????

The only one that 'rocked the world' (and far more than an iPod) was the Walkman, HandyCam was just a camcorder (as loads of people manufactured), Trinitron was just a slight variation on a conventional CRT, and SuperBeta was a failed improvement on BetaMax (which failed as well).

Sony have tried numerous times to emulate the success of the Walkman - but it's like a successful op band, it's much more down to luck than planning.

I don't think Sony has the spare cash to come up with innovations as it used to; this role is now taken by the likes of Apple and Google.
But in the PS4, Sony has a solid product that "rocks the world".

Strange, isn't it; that the fact is they can't make money from a market which is one of the Worlds biggest? How many people buy tv sets each day? Millions upon millions all around the World.... You'd think there's enough of a market for people to buy whatever brand they like. Everyone must be buying supermarket specials and the like.

People are just buying on price. if they check the "specs" they go for buzz words like 1080p rather than quality assuming a higher spec is higher quality. My friend bought a cheapo special about the same time I bought my Panny and was crowing about the price difference - he's had two more TVs since then to replace faulty ones (yes I know that's anecdotal).

What 'rocks the world' about it?, it's just another game console, one of many.

It's not so much that Sony (and Panasonic) can't sell televisions but they can't sell them at a high enough price to make a profit. Their competition is more from Korea's LG and Samsung who are able to run profitable TV businesses. How long until these two companies will do so before they are edged out by Chinese brands will be interesting to see. That's why I think if Sony links up with anyone, it would make sense for it to be a Chinese firm. Or maybe a company from future electronics hub eg Vietnam.

There are many TVs but only a few games consoles.
What "rocks the world about it"? It's far outsold its competitors but even Sony is hard-placed to say why! This article here tries to establish the answer.
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...-so-successful

The minute the cheap, third-tier manufacturers were able to make products cheaply, which performed adequately, the major manufacturers were finished.

Even Samsung and LG are starting to look rocky in the TV manufacturing market now. A market has been created in which features have a shelf life of two or three years. It's inevitable, therefore, that consumers are going to go for the products that deliver the features at the cheapest price, as they know the latest and greatest now will be obsolete in a couple of years.

Hardly anyone is interested in buying a high quality product, and keeping it for 10-15 years any more. So the quality dips, the Japanese manufacturers lose their edge, and the vicious cycle perpetuates.

Frankly it amazes me that Sony and Panasonic have lasted out as long as they have. The quality isn't really there any more, even from these manufacturers. The Panasonic 50" LCD set I have now is flimsy and made of poor quality materials -- an Alba set of 20 years ago was made to a higher standard.

gotta agree , people , myself included would sooner buy cheap , especially when 5 yrs guarantee's are commonplace .

the samsung 22 inch i just bought from richers with said guarantee for 130 quid ,

at that price i can afford to care not about build and component quality .,,,,, if it fails within 5yrs im covered , and if it fails afterwards who cares at that price ive had my moneys worth