The second largest consumer electronics maker in the world plans to make a reduction of some 16,000 jobs in order to boost its earnings. According to Sony Corp, 8,000 of these will be full-time positions, while the other 8,000 will be coming from part-time and seasonal workers. This comes together with other measures such as outsourcing of production and delaying or reducing investments. Sony has 160,000 employees worldwide.

The outlook certainly seemed grim. Indeed, many analysts are not convinced that these cost-reductions will be enough.  Hiroshi Sato, a Tokyo-based chief investment officer was blunt in his assessment, "I can't see how the company will regain its charm with consumers."

Now, I have had some terrible experiences with Sony Singapore, and the markups on some of their higher-end products are simply unrealistic. Still, it is undeniable that Sony did invent or popularize a number of cutting-edge technologies.

The company pioneered the "isolated key" design for the keyboard of its laptops that many mistook to have originated from Apple.  It was also at the forefront of leveraging on carbon fiber [1] for the chassis of its laptops. I believed they started off the concept of using hybrid graphics by having a "Stamina" and "Speed" toggle. Indeed, it recently upped the stakes by eliminating the need to reboot or even to log off with its recently launched Sony Z [2] model.

But in a world of less expensive rivals from Taiwan, China and South Korea, as well as ever more impressive innovation and design from the likes of Apple, perhaps it will have no choice, but to shed its premium positioning.

To read more:
- check out this article [3] from CNETNews.com
- check out this article [4] from Bloomberg.com
- check out this article [5] from NYTimes.com

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