Sony Electronics  

Since this blog is meant more as a place for commentary and perspective, I have held off gloating over the news about the recent Blu-ray Disc victory in the next-generation HD format war. A plethora of news outlets around the world have reported on the war’s conclusion just fine, thank you.  But having been through a few of these in the past, I would like to take a moment to reflect on some noteworthy distinctions this time around. 

First off, there has been a strong commitment throughout the world of Sony to a team approach to making Blu-ray the standard-bearer.  Within the company, our Chairman and Chief Executive Sir Howard Stringer has been advocating the concept of “Sony United,” which was illustrated at a high level throughout the war.  Blu-ray has been at the head of the list of key issues for executives, engineers and marketers at every level, in every country, and across all of the various Sony businesses.  From the East Coast to the West Coast, from the U.S. to Europe to Japan, and from electronics and video-gaming to motion pictures and home video, Blu-ray has been top priority.

And with BD the teamwork was evident not just across the Sony Group, but also with every conceivable business partner and competitor, including other CE companies, computer manufacturers, disc replicators, retailers and, or course, Hollywood studios.

Obviously, the death knell to the competing format was delivered with Warner’s proclamation of exclusive Blu-ray support following the critical Holiday selling season in the U.S.  In anticipation of this possibility, Sony and the BD collaborators made every effort to deliver strong consumer demand and sales before the year’s end, which is exactly what we did.  And then this was followed by still more retailer commitments, including Best Buy, Netflix and Wal-mart.

Sony has been engaged in a number of format wars over the years where we supported the most advanced technology.  But with the Blu-ray initiative, I’m pleased to say that the effort was not inhibited by two negative aspects of Sony’s otherwise long and proud tradition:  arrogance and silos. 

Within Sony, the BD effort wasn’t just driven by one segment of our business or a handful of Japanese executives. Sony’s television and home video units were on board, as was the Playstation team and Sony Pictures.  Plus, there was corporate marketing and advertising support on a global scale.

And at the outset, beyond Sony, there was no question that we were just one member of the Blu-ray camp, as opposed to being the only CE company driving the bus.  In the U.S. for example, the Blu-ray Disc Association’s principal spokesman has been a Pioneer executive.  In addition, we sought Hollywood support at an early stage from such heavyweights as Disney and Fox. 

I’m not sure the same can be said for the other camp, where all the moves seem to have been determined by a single electronics maker and a large software company, whose agenda was never entirely clear. The unfortunate aspect of this resistance was that the battle played out longer than necessary, perhaps keeping millions of consumers on the fence.

Now our mission, along with those of our Blu-ray collaborators/competitors, is to encourage the public to check out the beauty of BD in all of its full1080p high-definition impact, hopefully with a magnificent BRAVIA flat-panel LCD television to go right along with it.  And it just so happens we will have some Blu-ray player announcements in the days ahead, which you can check out on our news and information web site at www.sony.com/news.