Sony is a company that was once the talk of the tech sector. With their gargantuan successes – including the ubiquitous Walkman and their line of chic televisions – Sony has traditionally been the Icarus of technology, soaring above their competition on wings made of dreams and solidified wax. Sadly (for them, not this analogy) Sony flew too high, and has recently seen a string of failures including the MiniDisc, every DRM scheme they have ever concocted, and last year’s storied $1.93 billion splatter of red ink from their PlayStation 3 console.
Sony CEO Howard Stringer, however, believes the PS3 to be the key to Sony’s future, and he said as much to shareholders at a meeting in Tokyo earlier today. To quote the man behind the tie:
We always lose money in the hardware initially, and we recover that money gradually…We believe that the PS3 going forward will be vital to our future, and succeed
It’s still too early to report Mr. Stringer’s pants as being en flambé, but considering a high point of the company’s financial forecast for the current year includes a loss of only $404 million dollars, I wouldn’t consider them out of the woods just yet. In fact, since I only know three people who own a PlayStation 3 and I exist in a world almost completely made up of spare Crash Bandicoot jewel cases and Super Nintendo peripherals, I think it would be more appropriate to say that Sony is still stuck ten miles from the nearest ranger station, the sun is setting, and they smell strongly of red meat.
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