Sony At CES: Bravia HD TV, Xperia Z, 4K, Wow; Presentation Doesn’t

Sony has gained a reputation at CES for presenting great products and a fantastic presentation. (Zennie62 CES and NMX coverage by Tout.com) A presentation that was generally marked by the appearance of an A-list star to draw attention to Sony’s position at the nexus of celebrity, tech, and pop-culture. Taylor Swift, Will Smith, and Kelly Clarkson are just some of the entertainers that appeared on Sony’s big stage. For example, Kelly Clarson in 2012:

And The Black Beauty Car From The Green Hornet was on display in 2011:

But this year, there were no stars, cars, or Sir Howard Stringer; there was just Sony’s new President and CEO Kaz Hirai (from PlayStation), and Phil Molyneux Sony’s President and COO giving a less-than-smooth presentation. Several things went wrong: Mr. Molyneux flubbed his lines more than once. Sony’s revolutionary new OLED TV failed to work after it was rolled out. And Sony just ended the presentation without either Hirai or Molyneux thanking the audience and effectively marking the end of the event.

Now, to be clear, the setting itself was awesome, and while not as clearly monumental as the 2010 version with its giant forward screen, it was nonetheless, impressive.

But the new presentation itself within the setting caught many Sony press representatives by surprise, as they didn’t know what to expect either. But the different approach could be described as austere and reflecting a company that posted four straight years of net losses. Stringer stepped down last year, but retains the title of chairman.

But what’s lost is Sir Howard’s flair for presentation and for celebrity. Still the idea is obvious: the product is the star, and from that perspective Sony has some amazing new entries. Let’s take a look at two of them.

First, I’m personally very impressed with Sony’s new Xperia phone, which Sony says gives you an “extraordinary viewing experience,” and they’re not kidding. Second, Sony’s Xperia is perfectly poised for the emerging mobile video industry, where Tout.com, Viddy, SocialCam, Vidoco, and other apps are forming a new area I call “microvideoblogging.”

The Xperia’s basic specs are as follows, according to Sony:

– 5 inch Full HD 1080 x 1920 “Reality” Display with mobile BRAVIA Engine 2
– 13MP fast capture camera camera with Exmor RS for mobile & HDR video
– Dust & water resistant
– 1.5 GHz asynchronous quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB RAM
– Battery STAMINA mode improves standby time by at least four times
– One touch mirroring
– 4G LTE for superfast entertainment

I saw the phone at Sony’s CES Press Event, yesterday and will go back to make a video on the new device.

Sony BRAVIA Televisions

The new here is that Sony’s rolling out it’s new Sony BRAVIA line of televisions, paced by the W802A LED LCD HDTV with 3D television in the spring. And guess what? It’s a 55-inch screen! Sony is also rolling out the BRAVIA X900 4K Ultra HD TV. It features an immersive 4K Ultra HD picture quality with Edge LED backlight, and built-in WiFi, which is great for gamers. It also comes in the 55-inch and 65-inch screen sizes.

Sony’s 4K Effort

This year, Sony will be the first company to have its own 4K content distribution system. The introduction of its new TV products fit with this announcement, as you will need a Sony TV to realize the best results from Sony 4K.

But with all of that, marketing and presentation matter. This blogger’s concerned that the post-Sir Stringer Sony has great products but poor marketing. Of course, some would recite that Sony wasn’t performing well of late under Stringer, but my counter is what I saw yesterday at CES is not the way to go.

Stay tuned. I have more to say about Sony.