By James Wells in Berlin
BERLIN: Sony CEO and chairman Sir Howard Stringer set three clear goals for the company in an address at the company’s press conference at IFA 2008 in Berlin today.
In his speech, Stringer said the company’s mission “is simply to become the leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment”.
“Sony is well positioned to achieve this,” he said.
“We have global scale, we have great design and innovative engineering and we have entertainment content that can be married in creative ways with our devices.
“At Sony Pictures we possess one of the largest digitised libraies of premium movie and television content in the world and our music companies together have one of the most well-known and valuable catalogues of masters and copyrights as well as a roster of world-renowned music artists. All of these assets put Sony in a uniquely competitive position and as technology and infrastructure continue to evolve rapidly as customers demand new features and new services we are prepared. We believe that only Sony can offer this range of content across so many devices in every region of the world.
“At our corporate strategy meeting this summer we identified three key strategic initiatives critical to Sony’s success: to strengthen our core businesses, to make 90 per cent of our products network enabled, and to capialise on international growth.
“First we will strengthen our core business even further — this is a priority for us on an ongoing basis. Three years ago we had limited presence if any in the LCD television business but today weare competing for first place in worldwide market share due to the strength of our Bravia lineup.
“Sony was the first to bring the next generation of television technology — OLED to market. As many of you have seen, this television is only 3mm thick and has a brilliant contrast ratio of more than 1,000,000:1 — that makes it very bright.
“We continue to improve our OLED technology for larger televisions and other applications and we continue to grow our enormous digital imaging business where we maintain leading market share.”
Stringer then demonstrated the company’s policy of Sony United, which seeks to unite internal business divisions by cooperating on joint projects.
“As Sony has clearly evolved into a global electronics and entertainment company I would to share with you some news about a highly anticipated Sony Pictures film and its ability to differentiate Sony from all other companies.
"Today I am delighted to announce a global marketing campaign from Sony featuring Daniel Craig as James Bond 007.
"Developed as an artistic extension of the upcoming film, Quantum of Solace, which will be released in theatres worldwide by Sony Pictures this fall, the campaign will highlight Sony’s high definition product capabilities while capturing the energy and intensity of the 22nd James Bond adventure.
"This is the first time we have integrated our film and electronics marketing efforts at such a profound level bringing together Sony’s leadership in high definition with one of the world’s most powerful and iconic movie franchises.
The campaign will launch first in Europe in September and then rollout worldwide timed to coincide with the film’s release.”