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Sony has spent years struggling to adjust to the digital age but chief Howard Stringer
Thursday sought to make the case that it has finally found its footing.
Howard STRINGER, CEO and president, Sony "Much has changed over the past year and the
pace of change has accelarated."
Stringer, speaking in Tokyo, said Sony is ahead on cost-cutting for the year and in
the last 12 months has shed almost 20,000 workers and reduced inventories by 40 percent.
His new management team, in place since April, was credited with much of the turnaround.
Howard STRINGER, CEO and president, Sony "These have enabled us to streamline our operations,
speed decision making and save money."
But the company isn't out of the woods yet.
A 5 percent operating profit margin -- a goal since 2005 -- is yet to be met. Sony lost
money last year and predicts it will do the same this year. It's key PlayStation and Bravia
TV businesses are also losing money but it set plans for both to be profitable next year.
Howard STRINGER, CEO and president, Sony "We know we have to restore profitability
in our TV and game businesses."
Stringer set some aggressive goals including a 40 percent slice of the e-book market and
a 20 percent share of the global TV business in 2012.
Next year Sony will launch the Motion Controller for the PlayStation 3 and a firmware upgrade
that will add 3D support to the console.
But perhaps the biggest effort next year will be the Sony Online Service content delivery
platfom, which dovetails with the addition of a network capability to Sony's digital
consumer electronics.
Over the envisaged service users will be able to download video, audio, e-books and other
content, get new applications and software for their devices and access a range of services.
Stringer didn't announce any new products on Thursday but said a number of new devices
would be on show at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
In Tokyo this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service