Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

  “There can be no doubt about the fact that it has been an extremely difficult 12 months for Sony and, as a result, the electronics giant has seen revenue fall 9.6% to $79.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended with March. Those numbers are down from $87.8 billion in 2011.” The factories in Thailand got flooded halting production, a Quake, a Tsunami, and so much competition from everywhere are cited as reasons.
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Korean companies Samsung and LG took the market away by making TVs cheaper and just as good. TVs went from being huge boxes of tubes to being flat and nearly disposable. They technology changes every other year and buying something that’s not a decade of commitment is the new way to go. Like Nintendo, Sony and Panasonic, two big TV makers had shares fall from quarterly losses. They’re now going to output half of their projected amounts of TVs. (ft – Japan Waves White Flag)
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The world is in mourning. The passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs is truly a tragedy on a personal level; yet, I can’t help but reflect what his life’s work represented on the international stage. “Innovative” is the recurrent description attached to Jobs by various news networks. However, if he were known for just that trait alone, then he wouldn’t have superseded America’s creative reputation. America is the land where technical innovators are born. Whether it’s Henry Ford, Thomas Eddison, or even Bill Gates, that’s what America is known for. It’s what made companies like Apple the envy of nations across the globe and continued to persist after the current Great Recession. In a Giant Robot interview with Shuji Iwai, the dirctor remarked over Japan’s economic and creative slump. He idly commented how few products turn the world the way Apple does. Even executives and employees of Sony boldly strove to compete with Apple’s products during Jobs’s renewed tenure. CEO of Chinese computer company Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing, voiced similar sentiments at the news of Jobs’s demise Creations aside, Jobs’s most recent achievement was a simple one. He preened and maintained America’s stature as innovators of tomorrow. Whether or not this belief of American exceptional is a myth or reality doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that people both abroad is what counts. Steve Jobs has died, but one can only hope that he didn’t take this perception to the grave.
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