Sony is still facing a deep financial crisis and they plan to recover by completely selling their PC business and reduce their TV investments costs. And Sony.net reports:
In the imaging, game and mobile businesses that Sony identified as the three core businesses that would drive the growth of its electronics business, Sony has made significant progress in executing this strategy.
And Reuters reports that Sony:
will cut 5,000 jobs and trim 100 billion yen ($988 million) a year from fixed costs, while splitting off its loss-making PC and TV units.
The camera (and sensor) business is one of their high priority. Just let’s hope Sony can manage to move out of the deep crisis soon. We will patiently wait for more their new A-mount cameras, FE lenses and a more clear marketing and customer support.
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Mayby Sony should also sell off some of thier management..
Such as the one who came up with thier new naming system and left ibis off Nex ( Yes Nex because thats what it shoild be called!!!)
Change the record please…….Let it go
The curse abandoning the NEX name will eventually kill the brand.
People who actually dont want to read comments dont read and reply to them.
So change your own record…no one cares what you want to hear.
Barry, you’re out of your ecentric artistic little mind.
You’re a broken record. Are you like Rain Man?
Yep. 54 Megapixel. Gotta get 54. 54 Megapixel.
Besides the fact that I dont care if you like my comments or not WHERE DO YOU SEE THE COMMENT YOU ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT.
I actually comment about many different topics
You are hallucinating.
You should be photographing the wild mushrooms not eating them.
Anti-barry = Loser/Retard
Seek Therapy
Nobody would buy such stupid management LOL
+1
BlackBerry
Does every single topic have to degenerate into E-mount not having IBIS? It’s done, get over it, move on. Complaining incessantly day after day after day is not going to change it. We know you don’t like that decision but at this point it’s really moot to keep bring ing up over and over again.
Its not over
Sony is continuing down a path of terrible decisions that will eventually lead to yhier fsilure unless that decision making process is changed.
E mount and A mount systems need to be somehow msdecomlatable or they will eventually fail.
The naming sustem needs to be changed into something that makes sense.
Sonys lack of a clear path and alianation of thier loyal customer base are not tje minor problems sony seems to think they are.
If Canon or Nikon come out a universal camera tjats better than E mount and has IBIS and is fully compatable with A mount and E mount lenses sony camera division is out of business.
And you think your constant rants and diatribe is going to change that? Do you really think Sony cares that you don’t like that there is no IBIS and that you don’t think that getting rid of NEX was a bid idea? You are one person yet you seem to feel that you speak for everyone. You do not, and constantly bogging down this forum with the same message in virtually every topic, sometimes repeatedly within the same topic will not make Sony care anymore!
The incessant fixation on the name change from NEX indicates to me some deeper issues. it’s a name. Who cares? If you can’t figure it out, ask and somebody will explain to you I’m sure – it’s really not that complicated. It’s almost as if you are taking these things as a personal attack. They aren’t. Chill out man 🙂
Do you think your telling me what to say and not to say is going to change what I say,
Do you think I care if you aprove of what I say
The answer to both is no.
I dont know what sony is reading or listening to and neither do you.
I do not follow anyones advice about what I should or should not post so if you want to control what I say get over it..its not going to happen.
It may however make you feel better that I will not control what you say either but unlike you I will not try.
I live in USA where people are free to speak…perhaps you would be happier living somewhere where that is not so.
I too live in the USA and I am ashamed for out country to have a person like you representing the USA.
Look at all the wasted space on this post and others by people like yourself trying to get people not to ssy thingd becaiuse you dont want to hear them.
Your posts are a pathetic waste of everines time.
In your vain pathetic attempt to shut people up …which has zero chance of happening ….you have subjected the very people claim you want to protect from this unwantsd chatter to you pathetic chatter and my unneccesary response.
Look through this post and you will see that most of the posts are not my annoying comments but rather the annoying comments of those like you…hho seek to silence others ….and my annoying responses to you that should not even be neccessary.
So Jay Stellar
Carefully reread your oun pathetic advice and follow it.
Pathetic is polluting every single topic with the same rhetoric over and like a 3 year old throwing a tantrum because you can’t have exactly what you want.
Barry,
And how should Sony management take care of confusion, when they wouldn’t be able to introduce IBIS into FE class cameras? Should they use A65/A77 video crop mode type approach for stills and have software stabilization? Or should they increase confusion by having IBIS in APSc cameras but not having IBIS in FF?
It is my understanding that there is insufficient throat diameter for IBIS on E-Mount FF cameras. Cause to have IBIS on FF you have to have sufficient image circle as well.
Every new camera name should have two letters as part of the name
AC
AF
EC
EF
the meanigs are so obvious I dont need to explain.
A hybrid systm when it comes out needs to have IBIS so the two systems can be made compatable.
Z shift focus/macro would be a good addition.
Thats how this current mess can be repaired.
Unfortunately, knowing Sony, their marketing department will not fix the current mess, but will rather make it even worse.
Heck, they couldn’t even provide their web development team with proper information on that E-Mount image that appeared a few days back. And that’s existing gear.
Do you really think they are capable of producing some worthwhile information?
You know how the saying goes – don’t touch it and it will not smell. That has to do with Sony’s marketing department, not equipment that Sony’s engineers make…
Good move!
This could be a good move nut no amount of good moves will help if they continue to make one bad move after another.
bravias and vaios should have been sold long ago, they been bleeding money for years
If they kept VAIO for just a year or two longer they should be seeing profit. The reason VAIO’s gone down the wrong path is most probably the cursed european CEO. Since the Japanese took the helm again VAIO’s refreshed line has had many decent products, and decently priced too. But this new strategy only lasted for about a generation and a half and they’re selling the business altogether.
I agree. The Vaio Pro 13s I saw last time I went to the Sony store had very good panels (choice of glossy or matt, too) with good specs and decent price.
I would consider buying those more than getting an Asus Zenbook, for example.
It’s a shame, I think, about the Vaio part. Their designers are really good (from what I saw) and the manufacturing is very good. It isn’t a Thinkpad or Precision but for the price and panels, it was very good. I would have wished Vaio would have made Thinkpad quality notebooks with those great Sony panels and sourced some quadro cards to go with them…
Shame
Probably a good move for them, but I’ll be missing some of their products.
I would half disagree.
Vaio, not a good idea.
TV, should have been spinned.
I saw Sony 4K tv’s next to the LG and Samsung ones when I was in Germany in Dec and I thought, there and then, that in a few years that would be the future. I know Samsung and LG and Sharp are selling more than Sony, but I imagine Sony could have kept the TV line as a premium/professional type of market instead of competing with the cheaper consumer Counterparts.
The TV business is going to go into a 100% owned subsidiary with a focus on higher end models.
Link: http://www.whathifi.com/news/sony-to-restructure-its-tv-business-and-focus-on-4k-ultra-hd-models
What I didn’t know is that Sony also sold its North American ebook business to Kobo. I hope they are going to keep the European and Asian ebook business.
Slightly off-topic on this photographic forum, but I own both a Sony and a Kobo E-reader. Although the Sony is built a lot better and looks better, I prefer the Kobo for its backlight, in sleepless nights. The Sony solution, a little LED-lamp, is a bit stupid and not nearly as inventive as the Kobo glow backlight. Merging the products could mean an improvement for the resulting product.
Don’t remind me about their stupid ebook business. I have two of the first generation ebooks sitting on a shelf because they changed the format of the books after they came out with the second generation and now the first gen are nothing but paperweights.
Calibre could solve that problem easily!
Just like the camera division.
For me sony marketing/advertisment is way too behind compare to many brands out there. I hardly see Sony advertisement on TV and cinema in my country, especially camera NEVER! Many brands isn’t really that good but they sell tons of it because of advertisement EVERYWHERE on screen.
+1
Instead of trying to “impress” people, they should make prospective customers aware of the benefits.
I used to hate sony for over-pricing their products though akways liked the quality and innovation. Now with the aggressive pricing strategy let’s hope that Sony will still be able come up high quality stuff.
That’s another thing I noticed when watching 4K TV’S at a shop, Sony was very competitively priced vs Samsung or LG or Sharp. The problem has always been that Sony lost its marketing push mojo in shop and on ad spaces.
If Sony is producing 4K cameras today, why would they not push harder to promote theor delivery solutions today? I believe it’ll pay off.
Recently, Sony’s got a track record of world firsts:
RX1 world’s first compact fixed lens FF digital camera.
RX100 world’s smallest 1″ zoom compact camera
FS700 720fps at 720 or 1080 (?)
AX 100 world’s first 4K handycam
A7/r world’s smallest FF compact interchangeable lens camera.
Not sure about the quality anymore. I got my kids 2 playstations for Xmas. One of them was doa and was replaced for a new one at the store, the replacement lasted a little over 3 weeks before it stopped working and because no more we’re in stock where I bought it was sent in for warranty service, which took over two weeks to turn around. So in my small sample 2 out of three units were bad. That isn’t what I call quality.
Competing in advertisement means bleeding millions too and no guarantee for success ( camera brand loyalty is underrated).
It’s nice to try when you have deep pockets, not when you’re having to cut costs to stay even afloat and with investors breathing heavily in your neck.
If you don’t advertise your products they don’t sell. Canon and Nikon advertise, are you saying they have got it wrong then?
No, of course I’m not saying they are wrong, that would be a fallacy.
They have deep pockets and much more to spare when it comes to advertising. Advertising is often also a battle, whoever is willing to pay most, gets the exposure. This even goes for shelf space in most store chains.
People here seem to have no idea that worldwide marketing budgets of Nikon and Canon are larger than Sony’s total imaging revenues, let alone margins….
You can’t spend money you don’t have or that investors will not allow you to spend, it’s that simple.
And the claim that you can’t sell without spending (more) on marketing, is unfounded too. Look at brands like GoPro that started booming out of nowhere, long before creating their own large campaigns. Even in crowded markets it’s possible to sell through mouth to mouth advertising before spending many millions on TV and magazine ads, see for example Lenovo. Which is not to say that big spending does nothing, Samsung knows it helps a lot if you can afford it.
The relatively small budget that Sony has, is mostly allocated to faster growing markets, markets with more long term potential and/or markets that are less divided by the big two (less loyalty to CaNikon). And that’s still their best bet for now, whether Americans and Europeans like it or not.
AlphaGuy, in another thread, you took offense to being called American and yet you act the way American corporate stooges do – you assume hearts and minds of customers can simply be purchased.
T-Mobile and Sprint advertise heavily here in the States and yet they’re stuck way behind AT&T and Verizon. Microsoft has been heavily advertising Surface tablets for a couple of years now but tablets is still Apple’s world. Ditto with Windows Phones.
HP launched a massive advertising campaign for their WebOS products from Palm, which sold so poorly that HP killed off the entire product line. Samsung advertises NX cameras heavily in Asian markets with no real success.
Advertising means nothing if your brand has no real worth among your target customers and your products aren’t good enough to rise above the market leaders. Where Sony’s tech is good, they’re doing well – videography and cinematography, high-end compacts (RX series) and the A7/A7r have generated some interest among pros. Beyond that, they need to shore up their SLT products and make some fundamental improvements to the technology before they have something worthy of advertising.
No I didn’t, I thought it was presumptuous, not offensive.
It was a good move by Sony..Pretty obvious choice. And yes they seriously need lessons in marketing and advertising…Seriously!!
Dropping the NEX name was a bad move and now they’re going down…
It’s not good to lose over a billion dollars in a year. So Sony is following Panasonic’s playbook- dumping unprofitable consumer product lines.
Right now it is focusing on the biggest returns. That means the PC business, without warning, is kaput. They have let leak that their core TV business will also go away, and spinning it off into its own line of business subsidiary is a first step.
Once the big wins are complete, what’s left to be cut? A couple years ago Sony said their future would be in mobile, imaging, and gaming. Mobile is down everywhere, so so much for that. Gaming is doing well, so Sony will probably keep PS.
That leaves imaging. Not clear how they differentiate commercial via consumer. But their consumer product line is still losing money.
With Sony showing a willingness to shed mainstream consumer product lines that helped define the company– just as Panasonic is doing– what’s to stop them from considering next year to shed further, if lower profile, money losing consumer lines, such as its cameras, in an effort to stay viable?
That would mean that the imaging division will be bought by another company, just like Sony did with Minolta. Not necessarily a bad thing, although depends on the buyer
canikon will always be muuuuuuuch, much, much, much…. much better (billion years in front of sony).
good luck.
Here is my one ‘sadface’
Sony was always seem as a somewhat premium option, regardless of what ‘aisle’ your were in at the electronics store. The name meant something. It geeky good to buy a SONY product.
Now it really doesn’t. The magic is lost, me by the market rather than anything.
I suppose it’s just a little melancholic nostalgia, but that is how I feel.
100+ agree
Sony was mark which you can rely on
was not cheapest option, or best value for money but if you didnt know the parameters you could rely that Sony will not disapoint …regardeles if it was tv, radio, camera or audio
but the young players like Samsung killed it
Vaio products are nice
Noo, i like vai, it’s way better than Toshiba laptop, don’t shut completely vaio mean luxury aside alien ware
Why should they advertise? Everyone knows Sony. The brand sells itself (or it did).
I don’t know about computers and TVs (Sony always charged a premium for them, so I never bought any of those products), but on camera business they don’t seem to have a proper focus.
They’ve been for long releasing cameras that are ‘jack of all trades, master of none’.
And when they seem to do SOMEthing right, they just go and kill it.
Look at Panny: when they realised the potential their cameras had for video, they went and released a series of camera that is very much oriented to videographers.
(then Sony releases an A99 which doesn’t exactly please neither photographers nor videographers)
Sony, just release a Nex with IBIS already.
Even Panasonic did. So can you.
Ask people about Sony dSLR and they have never seen them. That’s why.
Sony are not know as a camera maker by the general public. It is very rare that I see anybody with a Sony camera of ANY type or cost.
Anybody who did not buy a Sony Television doesn’t know what they offer. Most of there Televisions had more inputs than you could use. They also invented the Trinitron Television which was the gold standard. They still make some of the best displays in the world. Color fidelity is second to none, my opinion. They make great cameras also. I hate to hear all the Sony bashing. If you can do better then make your own. I never liked there PC. I also don’t think they should make cell phones either.
Yes Sony does sell itself
Its selling its computer division and soon its tv division.
If they keep doing business with cameras like they are doing at the moment, that will be the next part of Sony to be scrapped.
Replacing NEX7 with *that* thing?! Downgrading the existing NEX models and selling them for a higher price?!
A7 with sensor reflections, A7R with shutter vibration, menus that still make no sense…
What they really should scrap is their management team.
The easiest customer base to sell Nex to would be A mount users.
But Sony wants to make sure that wont happen by leaving out ibis so they cant use any of thier lenses.While we are at it lets hardly release any A mount cameras for a long time and lets try to convine people that miner improvements are gamechangers.
Lets also not advertise,promote , or put sony cameras in stores. Thes loyal A mounters will still find a way to buy your product and buy all mew lenses from you and throw away all the A mount lenses they just bought.
Great management Sony ( Thats sarcasm..I dont really think your management has been great.)
The customer experience is wrong imho. I should be excited about what they’re releasing next and not worrying about whether they’re going to kill the system I’ve invested in. Take a leaf out of Apple’s book!
EXACTLY. I should be wanting to upgrade my A77 to something, instead my feeling is that I’ll stick with the bugs I know rather than spend a grand just to get some different problems. Better the devil you know and all that.
@AndrewR: “The customer experience is wrong imho. I should be excited about what they’re releasing next and not worrying about whether they’re going to kill the system I’ve invested in. Take a leaf out of Apple’s book!”
Apple’s book is all about killing off products when it no longer pleases them. Just ask anyone who ever owned a 17″ Macbook Pro. Or an XServe. Or a dual-socket Mac Pro. Or had a body of work in Final Cut Pro or Shake.
Apple’s playbook is great as long as the product you like is on a good place in Apple’s secret strategic plan.
However the point still stands, Apple products are looked forward to and Sony should indeed take a leaf out of their book.
Agreed. They did a bold move by going SLT and dropping SLRs. Merging E and A mounts by at least having some E mount bodies with SSS would streamline a few things and reduce overall costs.
But that’s the sensible thing to do… something that camera makers seem to be against… like how Canon holds back on dslrs and mirrorless, nikon does their 1″ mirrorless and its large lenses, pentax virtually handed over the ball with their mirrorless K mount, Sigma avoids making a mirrorless or a full frame foveon, Olympus et al being fixated on mFT when it’s time to move on before history repeats, Fuji not wanting to go fullframe with their X mount, Leica tries to make bodies when they should be making lenses for popular mounts, Zeiss makes their slower lenses as big as their faster lenses but not better, etc. 🙂
Dear mr animalsbybarry,
Sony left IBIS out of their E-mount cameras for one good reason: SIZE!
IBIS need place for the motors and electronicsetc., It need space for getting the heat of the sensor out and it needs space for the larger batery. E-mount cameras are mostly small cameras and they don’t have the space for IBIS.
Then you can use your A-mount lenses perfectly well on your E-mount cameras. Sony offers two adapters for them, one for manual focussing A-mount lenses and one for fast AF those lenses. Sony is the only brand to offer both!
Then for the fact that the A-mount lenses have no IBIS on the E-mount cameras, that is true, but my first A-mount camera (Minolta 7000i) did not had IBIS, and all my A-mount lenses worked perfectly well on it! My 70-400mm G lens is working perfectly well on my Nex 5, When I need stabilisation I can use an very innovative external IS system, called a tripod, pictures come perfectly sharp out my camera. So please stop telling this kind of nonsens and start taking pictures!
I have no intention of using my 600,500 and macro lenses handheld without stabilization just because Sony senselessly decided not to include IBIS.
And it was indeed senseless because Sony not only could have desighned NEX to accomadate IBIS but were told many times by comsumers that they should.
If you are a loyal E mount user and not an A mount user yhan your system has not been around long enough for Sony to pull the rug out from under you YET but Sony’s dont change thier spots so dont wory they will.
Barry, why so angry today. There is no problem so long as Sony continues to produce native a-mount cameras, all Sony a-mount cameras have had IBIS and there is no reason to believe they will not in the future.
I would like to see 3rd party lenses, that have are built with IS, maintain this feature for a-mount users and those who may adapt them to e-mount.
Chris
You are misteakong anger for stating my opinion of what the problem is.
Sony is in the situation they are in because of a recent patern of poor mamagement decisions.
If Sony management decicions do not improve Sonys remaining devisions will also fail.
As for the hecklers with no usefull input I answered them as I always do
It seems like that in the last 3 or 4 years they have been making smart moves to turn the ship around before it is too late. They have sold off non-essential properties, selling the PC business, reducing and eventually spinning off the TV business – these are good things. The marketing since last Fall is much beet err Han it has been (the PS4 campaign is great as is the new engineer/artist campaign). The big key is that Sony continues to work on having the different departments communicate and coordinate with one another. The multi interface shoe is evidence that this is occurring. If the Sony pro video group and the Sony alpha group collaborate on the 4K alpha this would also be a good sign.
Overall, the moves have been good and the sensor business is strong, so there is no need to worry about the Sony alpha group going away.
Agreed Sony has been making some smart moves.
The problem is they are also making some not so smart moves and Sony really needs to minimize the not so smart moves otherwise none of the smart moves will be enough.
Chris
3rd party lens manufacturers cannot continue to put stabilization in A mount lenses because it costs them too much money.
Putting the actual stabilization in the lenses costs next to nothing but despite clear instructions Sony users lack the common sense to turn of one or the other stabilizer.
The result is Sigma has been overwhelmed by complaints and returns and will no longer be putting stabilization on sony mount lenses.
Tamron will not do it either because they are unwilling to trust users to turn off the switch.
animalsbybarry, why would you ever use a 500, 600mm lens on an E-Mount camera? Just stick with the A-Mount and you’ll be fine
Wise decision.
So they have waited for their loyal ex-Minolta users to get frustrated and jump ship before deciding that these very people might just save their company.
Great move Sony, could have told you that back in the Sony A100 days.
I think Sony’s doing a great job in imaging (sarcasm alert):
– Let a-mounts die off like a slow-motion train wreck so most of those users flee to Canikcon. It releases your marketing team from the burden of dreaming up ways to make the a-mount system suck worse. Sony will save at least $1,000/year not catering donuts and coffee to their weekly How To Make A-Mount Users Mad meetings. 😉
– Rename NEXs (a brand you’ve marketed) to Alphas (one you’ve completely neglected) to alienate e-mount fans. Another $1,000/year saved on catering donuts and coffee to their weekly How To Make E-Mount Users Mad meetings. 😉
– Merge NEX products in the most boring and unimaginative way. Unlike other manufacturers like Fuji and Panasonic who lead 2014 with their best to build market excitement, lead with all your low-end boring consumer stuff and let that monopolize all of the big electronics shows this year. Huge savings in sales staff time because journalists bored out their minds with Sony’s product announcements will be distracted by the other guy’s shiny new toys and leave them alone. 😉
– Develop really cool, cutting-edge sensors but do nothing to market your lead in imaging technology and be sure to license them off to other manufacturers and delay as long as possible putting them in your own bodies. Remember, boring products mean your sales team can relax – they can be the loneliest guys like the Maytag repair man in the ads. Huge savings in overtime pay and electricity turning your corporate lights off early! 😉
– Never trust your fans. Their cool ideas cost lots of money to develop so whatever people at SAR want like IBIS in e-mount bodies absolutely be sure not to include it in any product. You’ll be amazed by the money savings!!! 😉
Yeah, Sony. I see 2014 being another ‘winner’ for you!!! 😉
+!
I agree with you 100%!
What ARE they thinking???
It really does seem as if they’re doing EVERYTHING in their power to make sure they go out of business!
“ANTI-BARRY”
You need your own identity..adapting mine is pathetic.
I find it amusing.
And no, it’s not me.
So true and so sad it hurts :'(
Ctbanks.
Marketing sensors to other cameras is actual an excellent thing..this is not sarcasm..
Sony makes much more money on sensors than cameras and lenses.
For example Sony is making sensors for all yhe new medium format cameras withoutvthe hassle of making mf cameras…whst could be better for Sony?
The added volume allows more research an development as well as lower prices.
The fact that other cameras will have the same sony sensor does not make the sony camera a lesser camera it only raises the standard for all cameras.
I agree with you. I think spreading development costs as much possible is a total win for Sony. Even though sensors are a key technology there’s so many other ways Sony can differentiate their camera line. My point was they license to others and, for whatever reason, don’t always jump on their own technology.
I’d like to see more and better collaboration with Hasslelblad because farming out old designs is fine. In the case of Hasselblad, I don’t even mind them getting the new tech 1st because their a low volume manufacturer who doesn’t directly compete with Sony even with ridiculously overprice DSLRs and they can be a Guinea Pig.
Looks to be the best direction for Sony to take on.
Sorry for the people who will have to get work another place.
I like mye Sony TV, so I hope Sony still will be in the business.
Just focus on fewer models, with interesting features and quality.
Bad news ! Vaio are fine. Crazy management !
this is very good decision…
if only the kodak had done the same.
Except for the numerously repeated quibbles about the numerous quibbles about Sony products, the most common threads in all the comments is that Sony’s management is just short of diarrhea-wet crap, and that marketing is a total waste of money unless that product being marketed is something consumers want and are willing to buy.
Well, it means these f-tards can focus on our cameras. But seriously, this year so far is scaring the hell out of me. Stupid NEX naming strategy, alpha delays and no IBIS for e-mount is dumb. If Sony is trying to get me to not adapt my lenses to e-mount then they have another thing coming. I’ll just sell it all off and go fuji or something. You can put out a sub 2k FF NOW in a- mount. It should’ve been done over a year ago. And the horse shiit continues.
The next FF alpha needs to have 5 axis and 36MP while addressing all the flaws of the a99. We need a dedicated photographic tool first and foremost before anything else. Make the mirror capable of moving out of the way. I see it as a matter of survival for the a mount.
pc market is rapidly shrinking. Hp tried to leave recently. more will follow. Microsoft do what they can to compete with tablets. but they are doing a lousy job. win 8 sucks, and they know it. Sony are doing the right thing.
Microsoft is a lot like Sony. They have good engineers but can’t innovate or pick market trends so they’re forever trailing the competition. Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 came out way too long after iPhone/iPad. Me-too Google’s Android got out of the starting blocks far faster so is a lot more mature. Microsoft just isn’t nimble.
While I own both a Windows 8 hybrid tablet/netbook and a Windows Phone 8, I can easily see why they are poor sellers. WP 8 is a brilliant UI and WP 8 is far more stable and better supported with updates than my lousy HTC Android was (which I dumped) but the late start means fewer apps. Reminds me vaguely of Sony’s lens support. Windows 8 (and now 8.1) is immature with many rough edges and Microsoft curiously hasn’t leveraged their lead in development tools to better integrate Win 8 with WP 8. Kind of like IBIS-less e-mounts not attracting a-mounters like Sony would like.
I was shopping PCs with a friend at Best Buy. VAIO hybrids are clever but not compelling. Unintuitive, somewhat awkward way of folding them up to convert into tablet form. Since screen isn’t detachable you end up with a bit of a thick, heavy tablet form factor even though they’ve done a pretty good job cutting down the weight for a laptop. Typical of Sony branding, they think they’re a premier name so their prices are always a bit inflated which is a turnoff in a recession-hammered economy where there are better options or least as good options from Dell at big box retailers.
Which is why I question Sony’s questionable move to push a-mounts only on the high-end for 2014. In this economy people want value. Sony, IMHO, offers a poor discount model. They heavily discourage discounting bodies and lenses at the retail level (e.g., Amazon can’t show the discount price on a5000 preorders) until late in a model’s life.
While Win 8 is an OS that’s hard to love, I think it’s a great option (not the RT version) if someone can develop a clever, price competitive hybrid PC. I had great hopes Microsoft’s Surface tablets but they really suck – yes, I’ve used one I borrowed.
I think Sony can learn from Microsoft’s mistakes but seems eager to repeat them. I think the problem is some large corporate bureaucracies aren’t nimble and don’t encourage risk-taking.
If you want a supported Android device, buy a Google Nexus 5 (or the coming 6) and get Android updates within days of release. It has stock Android straight from Google, no waiting a year or more for the manufacturer and then network to test compatibility with their bloated Android. Nexus are one of the first ones to get updates.
I ditched my Blackberry and then after a month the Nokia WP8 and haven’t looked back.
always nice innovation from Sony, but when it comes to so called “vision” they’re always behind. they do what they do better than most and always in a clever way, but time and again too late. think about it: dslrs, mobile phones, smart phones, mp3 players, online stores, platform wars etc etc.
+1
Very unlucky decision, I think! Aren’t big screens and processing power parts of the imaging chain? Sony is going to miss some opportunities in the future as well.
all you guys that just complain about dying of a mount go to canikon please, It gets annoying reading everyday the same bs.
Customers who have invested THOUSANDS in a product have every right to complain. If YOU don’t like it, YOU go elsewhere.
We don’t want a Canikon DSLR.
We don’t want a mirrorless camera.
We want Sony SLT. Is it so hard to understand?
And you have them, why is that so hard to accept?
We have the vain hope Sony corporate will finally come to the sense and listen to us. You e-mounters don’t get it because you don’t have the same problem. Just fretting over Sony’s mismanagement of the system they claim to love.
Not canikon, but Fuji.
Here are the things I like about A-mount:
1. my old Minolta lenses, especially the beercan, the 100/2.8 macro, and the 20/2.8
2. my old Minolta film bodies
If the coming A-mount announcement won’t meet my desires, I will go Fuji, and will be selling my lenses–which is a shame, as I love them to death. The Minolta system was the first real camera I had, the Maxxum 7000, and the opportunity to keep using those great lenses was, for me, validation of my decision to buy into the system in the first place.
I will not be mad, I will be sad, having to experience the whole “end of an era” thing.
You know what? Maybe I will just keep my A-mount gear as a film nostalgia kit, there’s some pretty good film out there now.
That does it, I’m off to my local dealer TOMORROW to check out the Fuji X-mount gear they have in stock.
+1
TVs, too many competition and Samsung almost rules the market. PCs, too many competition and Sony isn’t cheaper than apple and yet Lenovo, Dell, HP offers very good cheaper PCs. FF mirrorless, NO COMPETITION… just stick to this market Sony, even your three-year old APS-C NEX7 is still the one of best IQ mirrorless today.
And forget SLTs, if I wanna carry huge system with me, I would go for Canon or Nikon SLRs TBH, they have millions of lenses and accessories.
Neither Canon or Nikon makes SLT cameras.
What people seems not to realize, is that SLT is a unique product, just like the RX1 or the A7R.
If you want EVF and fast AF, you can only go with the A-Mount. To kill it would be a huge mistake.
“I would go for Canon or Nikon SLRs” this is what I wrote, I think I made it clear that Canon and Nikon don’t have SLTs. and yes it is unique as it has EVF, but it’s not the best solution out there, when you work with off-camera speed lights in dim environment and you put your EVF simulation off, good luck with the amount of noise you get with the “UNIQUE EVF”.
The more cameras brought out by Sony, the better Fuji X-mount looks.
Fuji = Great image quality. Intuitive controls. Fantastic lenses. Continual updates to the firmware.
“Intuitive controls” Yes, it was intuitive 30 years ago.