Sony making up for lost time, focuses on Indian market

Q: When you took over at Sony in 2005, HD was the technology that was the flavour of the moment, now its 3D and those are the products that you are rolling out. It happened starting in 2010, we seeing it continue this year. But what is the offtake been like? I am not talking about in India because it's still really small and premium, but globally, in the USA for instance?

A: I think the number of movies that are being made this year in 3D is testament to the power of the technology and a bit into creating new experiences. The market place is very saturated with all kinds of content, so you have to find a new experience and 3D is a new experience in the cinema, which incidentally we can create higher ticket prices. But at the same time the spectacle of 3D in movie theatre is sustaining the movie industry in a period of horrendous piracy, which no government in the world seems to care very much about.

So we are keeping the business alive with 3D. Now that means that we have to migrate it to television and that's why we had the worlds first 3D channel. Our discovery relationship is exactly how we begin with high definition in America and there were questions then but it migrates. It doesn't happen overnight. We were surprised that how many 3D televisions that we sold last year when you consider there was no 3D to watch on them. So it's still from the promise and now we have to deliver on the promise with 3D comes on.

Q: So are you happy with the kind of offtake there has been for 3D in the countries where you are rolling in aggressively? You are not disappointed with the sales in US?

A: Trust me; it's moving faster than you can expect. But the press wants an answer today, not tomorrow. Time is on our side; we are a very patient company. High definition is now widely accepted, it didn't come full-born in one day and it takes time. So we are very happy. And it's getting a better and better and better.

Q: And it is content that is going to drive it because we saw what Avatar did, it's a Fox movie, shot with Sony 3D cameras. Isn't content something that is really drive or sell technology at the end of the day, more than marketing or a technology company telling us that this is good?

A: There is no question that services and content drive the sale of hardware, you need to trade a billion hardware, you need to trade a billion television sets to have the best quality, the best technology. But in the end an empty scream is worthless and what you put on it will sell and will drive the sales of it and I think 3D is that technology, just as Internet television will probably do the same thing.

Q: It's happened for the movies with Avatar, with television do you need that kind of a content driver to happen? And will it be a channel that you started?

A: I will give you the same answer is high definition. There are a lot of people who didn't understand what high definition is, there are a lot of people who still don't have high definition. But blue way improved the visual experience of 3D also. But it will be like high definition, a feature of television, people will have their choice. I don't think they don't want to watch revolutions in 3D, but I think essentially content in 3D will be move a reality and as we get more sophisticated in a use of it and how we direct it, my guess is that the television series particularly dramas first will migrate into 3D. And if the first drama that does 3D well on television will get an audience.

Q: Explain to us what happens with Google TV, because you are trying to offer the Internet on television and yet that is rather basic the interpretation of what Google TV is about? Isn't it?

A: That's just the beginning. We can deliver the Internet through our Bravia television set and the Bravia Internet link. But obviously Sony and Google television is in direct relationship with the Internet and more and more applications that Google designs or we design will migrate to television. But the initial one, like all initial technologies, is rather simple. Now there will be more content and more availability and you can get bypass traditional content companies.

Q: The tablet is something that everybody keeps asking you about and I believe that you have said in an interview in January that you want to be different and you are hopeful that it will be this year? So, are you still hopeful in March?

A: Yes.

Q: It's safe to say, I am guessing.

A: It's not going to come in March, but I am still hopeful in March. We have been working hard on the tablet to make it unique in its own different way. And as you will see, a lot of content will be available on it. But again we are so big that the tablet isn't the only thing we will be making. We announced to do it yesterday to do more digital cinemas in the UK-that's a tiny little headline, but it's a major jump through. We have moved into world share of digital images for our cameras. We sold those to everybody. We are a very big company. I have to base more often I think.

Q: What is a key challenge before a technology company like Sony today?

A: Making decisions about where we focus and doing a very good job of explaining to everybody, the relationship between all the products we have. Five or six years ago people were still asking me why do you want to have content?-we want to have content because the relationship between the content and technology separates us from our competitors. It's one of the reasons our brand is so strong in India. But it's harder when you do so much; we have to advertise our movies, our video games, our television and also our music; so it's a very complex big company and biggest isn't always the easiest.

Q: You started your career as a journalist and as a documentary film-maker; you have crossed over to the extreme end of the other side. Do you sometime whish you were the one asking questions or is it good to have all the answers?

A: I was always a producer and director. But when I was watching the events unfold in Egypt, I felt quite wistful for my days of being in the centre of events; I was in Moscow during the cold war and I was in the mountains with the Palestinian gorillas and on the streets with the IOA, those were the most exciting moments of my life. When I looked at India, I felt very wistful that I would like to be in the centre of the action where your day begins and ends and starts again in the whole new opportunities.

Q: You are Welsh, you are an American citizen, you lead an iconic Japanese company-so you are a global citizen?

A: I am actually culturally very confused.

Q: Increasingly, the world we are living in is going to ask for people to be able to straddle cultures in their work place and beyond. Any tips for these people or should we wait for a book?

A: I don't know if I will ever have time for a book and I rather suspect when I leave, the Japanese will succeed me. It's a world in which, to survive and succeed, you have to cross international boundaries and I have enjoyed my relations with the Japanese executives and I think they have been extraordinarily generous in accepting me without sort of 'has to be' out as a strange alien. And what I bring is a global experience that I wouldn't trade for all the tea in China. I come to India and it takes me 10 seconds to feel at home in India because I have learned as a television producer and as journalist to adapt to societies and find what makes some tick and what make some thrilling, that's who I am and it's been a wonderful ride.