Strategy in TECH...
Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai gave a relatively compelling keynote presentation that was in stark contrast to their rather dry Mike Fasulo and unemotional press conference. Not only was Hirai dynamic and at times, emotional even – he competently and capably articulated a new and strong vision for the company based on the Japanese word “kando” and the English word “wow.”
Samsung’s press day conference was the most unusual we’ve seen with everything from a product that caused an audible gasp of amazement from the crowd…to one of their celebrity presenters running from the stage in mid-presentation. But we believe we detected a subtle but significant shift with their TV business being less prominent and more in balance with the company’s other products such as their appliance, computer, and mobile businesses.
One of the bigger surprises on Press Day (the day before the show opens) at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was the Panasonic press conference. We were quite surprised when Panasonic opened their press conference at the consumer electronics show, talking at length about their non-consumer businesses.
Their official tag line at the event…Panasonic A Better Life. A Better World…seemed very generic and not particularly entertainment linked. But the more interesting tag phrase that we heard several times throughout the presentation was – Panasonic is more than a TV company…seemed to suggest that the company was distancing itself from its consumer TV business. Or at least, re-prioritizing their business segments as they spent the first several minutes of their presentation talking government, security, and commercial applications for Panasonic technology.
Press Day at CES is – to put it mildly – a bit of a grind. A seemingly never-ending series of scheduled press presentations that are scheduled one hour apart so the press can run from one supposedly 45-minute (of course they all run long) event to the next. The hallways often look more like a mosh pit as reporters, bloggers, and editors push, shove, and elbow their way to the next presentation hoping to get a seat close enough that the presenters don’t look like ants.
It’s easy to become jaded, as one sits through slickly produced, Hollywood-style presentation after another. Rarely, do we get surprised.
Toshiba Corp. has launched an aggressive strategy aimed at turning around its troubled, money-losing television manufacturing business. We wrote last week about their decision to close a manufacturing plant in China in a bid to restructure their production base – one part of a larger TV turnaround strategy. Now word comes of additional aggressive moves by the company attempting to return their once vaunted TV business to profitability.
Outerwall, Inc. (f/k/a Coinstar), owner of Redbox – the national video rental kiosk powerhouse – made several surprising announcements on Tuesday that suggest the company is dealing with some serious business issues. First, the company announced that Redbox division president, Anne Saunders, has left the company. And second, the company said that it would make significant cuts to its staff…and to other projects.
Spotify, the popular music sharing app, announced today that it will offer streamed music to smartphones for free (ad-supported), starting today. Spotify has long offered this capability on desktop computers for free (again supported by advertising), but had required a paid subscription (ad free) for mobile devices. Now…everything changes.
The company also announced that it has exclusively licensed the rights to stream music from rock icons Led Zeppelin…also starting today.
In an announcement earlier this month that could be characterized as counter-intuitive, Toshiba Corp. said it will stop manufacturing LCD televisions at its plant in Dalian, China by the end of December. The company says the move is aimed at helping improve profitability – even though most companies opened plants in China to take advantage of the lower labor costs to help their profitability.
We first reported on the formation of a new distributor group called Catalyst AV almost exactly one-year ago in December 2012, just prior to their formal launch at the International Consumer Electronics show this past January. While the concept of a national association of regional distributors was not a new phenomenon – various groups started forming back in the mid- to late-1990s – this particular announcement had some added drama with several of the initial members unilaterally defecting from competitor DDG.
In news sure to send a chill through the backbone of every luxury retailer and manufacturer of every luxury product – electronics included – eMarketer is reporting that new research makes it clear that Affluents, loosely defined as those with household incomes over $100,000, are now shopping online in increasing numbers. Up until now, online shopping was predominantly the domain of the mass consumer, with Affluents preferring gorgeous showrooms laden luxury appointments and knowledgeable, well-dressed and poised staff who cheerfully kowtow to them. Not any more…
