Flex Oled, please. hurry. up

Often, we think of which products in history have changed the world the most. And what possibilities new products and technologies open up. Even though, i mentioned in my previous post, that any product can sell as long as the right marketing technique is utilised, it is these new things that have the greatest potential to be runaway successes, these products that are unlike any other and bring something absolutely new to the table.
What products or technologies do we think fit into this category? Microsoft Kinect is the one that is currently springing to my mind. Despite Sony's move being more accurate and more capable for a higher variety of games, Kinect as we know it will probably outsell Move by the million simply because people have never seen anything like it.
This is why Sony needs to roll out FLEX OLED soon.
Currently, Sony's business strategy is good, however Apple has shown us that critically successful and marvellously engineered products aren't always the way to go. Take for example the current touch screen ipod nano, lets face it its so useless, yet its successful because its like no other.
Sony products have always been best in a pure engineering and spec war, VAIO computers at the best are always more powerful for a power for size ratio than others, Walkman MP3s have always had better sound quality than the rest of the competition, BRAVIA televisions have always been amongst the best for picture quality, but this might not matter.
FLEX OLED could be the product that changes Sony. Make Sony a more influential brand in the eye of most consumers, Flex Oled devices don't have to be heavily specced or extremely powerful, the presence of Flex Oled will open up new doors for interactive user interfaces and appeal to everyone in the way that the iPod touch and iPad have, this will be a product for everyone, not just spec loving business men.

Sony has the ability to create amazing technologies, but are so often too late to bring them to the market and let the others get ahead of them. Flex Oled will be a game changer especially in e-book readers and computers and if Sony gets a good headstart on the competition it could make a huge difference.

Sony's prototypes look interesting, let's hope they don't break their fans hearts again and bring too little, too late.




Flex Oled VAIO concept above.

Video link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgRgiH8ng3Y
Video link for FLEX OLED WALKMAN concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCNWxJpQN8

the power of marketing

Welcome back to thesonypony blog. I haven't posted in a couple of days and for the most part this post won't be about Sony but about the key to success of all brands in general.

My philosophy is that:

 'you can sell anything, it just a matter of convincing consumers that they need it'

That in my opinion is the hardest part of selling a product and what separates a good product from a runaway product. Sure, some brands can sell products by making them half the price of the rest of the competition (im pointing at you Samsung), but in the end the brands that are able to market their products, convince consumers that their product is the 'thing' and develop a loyal customer base are the ones who will achieve long term success.

If we look in the past and see the brands that were successful, they all had one thing in common: marketing expertise. Sony in the past achieved this and Apple currently is achieving this.
The Walkman became such a success not because it was a great product (no doubt it was though), it was because they showed consumers that it was something that was completely new, something that they needed. Imagine, if Sony hadn't marketed it this way, today we would look back at the Walkman as just another tape player without a record function (in other words an immense fail). Same with the iPod, it could have been just another MP3 player.

Once a brand achieves mainstream success with a certain product, generally they form a loyal customer base. They can ride on this success and release products with the confidence that they can rely on their fans always coming back for more. Generally though, this is the part where companies fall apart, when they reach this point arrogance kicks in and they believe that they can simply ride on the success of their fans and treat them like idiots, offering way too little at a far too high price, they start telling themselves and the world that they are the best, but not nearly enough showing it. That's where Sony lost their balls. Only time will tell whether Apple does the same.

Walkman didn't last, but will be remembered

There have been few gadgets in the past that have captured hearts quite like the original Walkman did. The original Walkman was something truly new, not something that you come by quite often, it was one of those products that made people go: Wow, what the f*ck is this? But its completely awesome! No one even knew about or contemplated the existence of portable music, and for a product to be released that did something people didn't even know existed, well that reaction should have been expected.

Since the Walkman's launch it has sold 220 million units globally, consequentially, changing the lives of some 200 million people around the world allowing them to listen to music, on the go. 

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and a couple of weeks ago Sony quietly announced the cease of production of the cassette Walkman in its home country, Japan. Despite the Walkman's recent shortcomings, it'll always be remembered as one of the greatest engineering feats of all time and one that literally took music to a new level opening up new market potentials for the music industry, and thus forming the basis of the creation of the Apple iPod. 

The Walkman name still lives in MP3 players and some Sony Ericsson music mobiles, and somewhere inside the Portable Audio department at Sony, and in the hearts of all Walkman fans alike, the Walkman will be back some day, stronger than ever. 

TheSonyPony