Real-world viewing

It seemed to surprise even Sony’s own local employees when we mentioned it to them, but the company was recently described to us as the world’s most efficient company when it comes to TVs (see panel overleaf).

Back in 2014 when Sony abandoned its PC business, many predicted its TVs would be next, given a decade of losses totalling over $7bn to that point. But then-CEO (now-President) Kazuo Hirai was smarter than your average axe-wielder, and was not about to see Sony exit a market which many considered fundamental to its public image. Instead he isolated the company’s TV business, hoping the independence would speed up strategy decisions. He did the same with its camera and audio divisions a year later. Now look at the results. Sony has a wildly successful photographic business — witness the EISA Awards elsewhere in this issue, and Sony’s seven awards from TIPA this year. And its TVs are also winning accolades — the A1 OLED was our Sound+Image 2018 TV of the Year, even if, as IHS Research’s Paul Gray says in an interview excerpt overleaf, it was a love-it-or-hate-it design with a desirability