Why Sony MUST produce its own branded hearing aids?

So far we have heard about the new strategy outline from the new CEO of Sony, Kaz Hirai. Among the announced strategies on March 2012, Sony made it clear it that one of the most important areas for further growth of the company will be medical equipment business. Prior to the announcement Sony acquired Micronics, a us based medical company which is involved in the research and development of near patient Point of Care devices for disease diagnosis, treatment monitoring and blood testing, and also provides comprehensive product development for third-party clients. Also, the medical foot prints can be recognised in their recent acquisition of So-Net as the wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

Although we have not heard much about the details of the medical strategy from Sony, but those acquisitions can give us an outline from the strategy of the company which can be summarised as a B2B business including developing a new range of high-tech medical devices for doctors, physicians and hospitals with ability to connect to each other thanks to the solutions that previously developed and implemented by So-Net.

Why Sony is WRONG while Apple is right?

A quick SWOT analysis on Sony can reveal that the company has been successful in design and development of the high end consumer electronics while business segment of the company has not been so successful so far. So the question is why Sony has not focused on medical consumer electronic devices such as hearing aids instead of B2B devices?

Now a day hearing aids are among the most sophisticated consumer medical devices which need a revolution in the connected and everything smart era. Today hearing aids can connect to the smartphones or TVs but indirectly. The revolution in smartphones provides a variety of ways to improve the hearing aids connectivity with different devices such as smartphones and tablets for example using the smartphone as a remote control for hearing aids or using the hearing aids as the headsets or many other applications and usages.

Again Apple found it first! Not surprisingly Made-For-iPhone hearing aids features were among the new features on iOS 6 by Apple.

10% of Americans are hearing impaired and the hearing impairment rates around the world are almost the same. So it seems Apple again got it right and tried to enter to a new and untapped market with a strong support from its hardware and software background.

Sony and its Android ambitions

Sony officials have made it clear that they want to be the first Android device maker in the world. The acquisition of Sony Ericsson was in aligning with this ambition and they wanted to make an integrated platform based on Android to make synergy between their devices.

While Apple is working with hearing aids maker to add hearing aids in its ecosystem, Sony can produce its own hardware and add it to its newly created platform based on Android.

Sony has everything to produce a range of sophisticated hearing aids that can make seamless and wireless connection to every electronic devices.

Sony is the only one which can overcome the visibility barrier

The last reason that can support entering to hearing aids business which is the most important in my view is the most important barrier of wearing hearing aids, their visibilities!

Yes the visibility of hearing aids is the most important reason that people do not wear hearing aids but what do you think about Sony branded hearing aids that look like headphones or headsets?

I think many hearing impaired would wear them because no one thinks that they are hearing aids!

Also Sony has a strong footprint on miniaturize electronic devices and may change the whole industry dramatically by making barely visible, good looking and wireless hearing aids.

Sony's Japanese rival Panasonic started to make hearing aids last year. However, Sony'd strong potential in making high-end portable devices and also stronger platform based on Android can make differentiation from Panasonic.

So if Sony wants to change only one thing in the world it can do it now or never!

Google's forbidden fruit to Iranians

The photo that is used by the online petition inviting Google to provide its services to Iranians

By: Houman Kabiri Parvizi

Mobile Editor

Computer and Communications World Magazine
Persian version is available via this link


On Tuesday 28 FEB, 2012 and during the Q&A session after Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt,  key notes at the mobile world congress in Barcelona, an Iranian journalist, Hessam Armandehi, asked Schmidt: “Why Google has limited its services to Iranian users?” and whether it would lift blocks on the company’s services in Iran.
Schmidt who seemed was not aware of those limitations, consulted the company’s lawyer off-stage and answered: “limitations were part of the laws in the US, apologizing for Google’s inability to act differently.”

Is that true?

The act that Schmidt and Google’s lawyers are referring to is: “IRANIAN TRANSACTIONS REGULATIONS” (31 C.F.R. PART 560) which is stating that:

“Except as otherwise authorized pursuant to this part, [….] the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a United States person, wherever located, of any goods, technology, or services to Iran or the Government of Iran is prohibited, including the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply of any goods, technology, or services to a person in a third country […] is prohibited.”

As it stated in this regulation there are some exceptions: “Except as otherwise authorized pursuant to this part”. Some authorizations have been made by the US government so far. For instance on 8th March 2010, The US Department of Treasury eased sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Sudan to allow exports by US companies of services related to Web browsing, blogging, email, instant messaging, chat, social networking and photo- and movie-sharing.

According to the amendment:

“The new general licenses authorize exports from the United States or by U.S. persons to persons in Iran and Sudan of services and software related to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet, including web browsing, blogging, email, instant messaging, and chat; social networking; and photo and movie sharing. Today's amendments also provide that specific licenses may be issued on a case-by-case basis for the exportation of services and software used to share information over the Internet that not covered by the general licenses.”

However, the amendment limits this allowance to free software only:

“To qualify for these authorizations, such services and software must be publicly available at no cost to the user.”

Nearly one year after this amendment, on 19 January 2011, Google made three products available to Iranian users (Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome) and not surprisingly added Chrome extensions to the allowed list right after Schmidt’s speech at Barcelona on 28 Feb 2012.


Which Google’s products and services are not available to Iranians?
There are plenty of Google products and services which are not available in Iran including Android Market ( Now part of Google Play), Google Chrome (OS), Google Mobile and Google Lab as well as some of the advertising services such as Google Adwords and Google Adsense. Recently an online petition by Iranian users titled: “Don’t be Evil, let Iranians use your software!” invited Google to lift those limitations on Iranian users. The petition has been signed by more than 5000 people so far.

The focus of the petition is on Android market and Chrome extensions which the last one has been made available as of 28^th February 2012.

Why Google is not providing more products and services to Iranians?

Android is the most popular smartphone operating system in the world which is being developed and distributed by Google. Along with the Android, the supplementary service which is providing myriad applications to the users is running by Google as well: The Android Market. As of February 2012, Android Market has 450000 applications which nearly 70% of them are free to download. Also, Majority of applications in the Android Market are related to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet, including web browsing, blogging, email, instant messaging, and chat; social networking; and photo and movie sharing which are allowed to be exported to Iran according to the latest amendment by the US Department of Treasury. In addition Google can provide even more services and products by seeking specific licenses according to the amendment.
Despite Schmidt’s argument pinpointing the US regulations as the cause for those limitations, those numbers and facts are leading to some obstacles that might be the reason for Google’s restricting strategy against Iranian users.
In order to provide access to those free applications from Android Market Google needs a department to review all of the applications and check the compatibility with the US department of treasury requirements mentioned in the amendment. On the other hand, Google cannot earn anything from Iran because it does not have any source of income in Iran. More than 96% of Google’s earnings come from advertising which is not allowed in Iran according to the US sanction regulations. So when there is not any incentive, why should the company spend lots of money for a department to review more than 300000 applications and monitor the new applications for those requirements?
So it seems the US regulation is just an excuse for not providing products and services to Iranians by Google. The reason behind this decision would be this fact that Google cannot earn anything, even 1$, in return. However, it is not really good answer in a press conference Q&A session! Is it?

Techno Yoda insight: A big question for Kaz Hirai, How to connect Sony's separate Islands together?

Sony just hold its very first press conference at the mobile world congress in Barcelona. The company celebrated the acquisition of Sony Ericsson by introducing two new smartphones, Xperia P and Xperia U. Both phones inherited the same design as Xperia S and Xperia ion with different hardware configurations as well sizes. In this post I am not going to analyse the introduced smartphones, but I am going to evaluate Sony's strategy.The first thing that comes into the mind is changing the name only. 
Sony has not integrated previous Sony Ericsson into the whole company. Its just changed the name from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB to Sony Mobile Communications AB with the same headquarters in London and even the same CEO and president, Bert Nordberg, who was he host of the press conference tonight.  So this shows the minimum change within the company.Also it seems there is no change in the company'd strategy. Sony is using the same way that previously experienced and failed in Sony Ericsson, producing the same looking phones with different specifications and sizes! Xperia P and Xperia U are completely similar to Xperia S in design but they have different specifications. But how come? It is obvious that Sony Ericsson has not been successful especially in recent years. The company has lost its market share dramatically behind its competitors from market leaders such as Nokia, Samsung and Apple to the newcomers such as ZTE. Does the company think that they do not to have to change anything and can go straight forward to the success without any change? I don't think so!

Sony is one of the most innovative companies in the world but its strong weakness is the company's structure and internal communications and collaborations between departments.
Lets have a look at the company's different islands at the MWC 2012, As it mentioned Sony Mobile Communications is one of the biggest exhibitors at the congress but what about other small islands. For instance FeliCa Networks, Inc, which is another wholly-owned subsidiary of  Sony and is providing contactless IC card technology is at the congress as well. They also had an announcement regarding the partnership with NXP  " to Create a Unique NFC Radio Controller Interoperable with Global Infrastructure" But why Sony did not mentioned anything about FeliCa in its press conference? Why they did not share their stands together instead of act as different and independent entities? I bet many of audiences even do not know that is any relation between Sony and FeliCa! But Why?
That's the old bad habit of Sony to make independent companies which do not collaborate with each other effectively. That is why Sony with the valuable archive of Music from Sony Music company and being the pioneer of portable music player lost its position to Apple iPod. 
If Hirai which is going to be the new CEO from April wants bigger portion of market share and also mind share pie, he should integrate mobile business into the whole company and try to DELIVER the integrated user experience within all devices (smartphones, tablets, TVs and even music player, camcorders and cameras) not only talking about that.
Finally, delivering integrated user experience without having applications in the portfolio is kind of useless. Sony has managed to put together music, video and game in its Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) but there is still a big dark hole in its portfolio, applications. Previously Sony Ericsson tried to provide applications and mobile contents through its Playnow service and also its dedicated channel in Android Market. As Android now is the main platform for Sony which is using in its smartphones, tablets and even TVs (equipped with the Google TV), applications and contents can be provided through a unique channel and it seems SEN is the best place to provide them to consumers along with music, video and games.

So this is the only way for Sony to use its core competences against competitors, otherwise the company will be transformed to something like Panasonic today:
Huge but unprofitable!

Techno Yoda insight: The "Integrated User Experience” a tough but promising task for the new Sony CEO

Sony is practically starting to gather its online services under the Sony Entertainment Network, SEN,  umbrella. Effecting from 7th February 2012, Sony Playstation Network, PSN, IDs will be transformed to SEN IDs. In September Sony announced its new "Integrated User Experience” strategy by introducing the Sony Entertainment Network and revealed its plan for combining and re-branding  its two hacked services Qriocity and Playstation Network under one roof, SEN.
Now it seems the strategy is progressing to the practical phase and at this stage the company is unifying more than 77 million user IDs of the PSN users with the current SEN IDs. However, The PSP users are not included at this stage. This will allow users to have access to the other SEN services such as Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited channels of the SEN with their unified IDs. In other word, through this change SEN will gain more than 77 million new users instantly! This number of users is lagging far behind more than 200 million users of iTunes, but it can be a good start for SEN.

The change is taking place ahead of the PS Vita launch and also the top management changes on April.
On Wednesday February 1, 2012, the Japanese giant, named Kazuo Hirai as its new president and CEO, succeeding Sir Howard Stringer, The Welsh-born American Citizen and the first foreign (Non-Japanese) CEO of its history.
Stringer’s right hand and one of the “Four Musketeers” who is promoted to lead the loss making giant has different and huge challenges ahead. Apart from the $2.9 bln loss and the ailing TV business, he should take care of the “Integrated User Experience” for network enabled devices including TVs, tablets, Walkman music players and specially smartphones to fight the rapidly growing iTunes, which has been one off the most important success factors of iPhone and iPad and can be a huge threat for the future of Sony. iTunes enables users to download music, apps, games, ebooks and more while SEN will provide music, video and game downloads and on demand services.
Apart from Sony customers, some of the multi-platforms supporting SEN services will be available to other manufacturers’ Android based devices as well. Consequently SEN is targeting wider range of audiences than iTunes which is dedicated to the Apple products users.
Although the new strategy for the SEN has covered three main pillars of the company’s entertainment services, it has not suggested any solution to provide ebooks and apps yet. Also, integrating other online services of the company under the SEN has not yet been announced. Apart from the current online services provided by SEN , Sony is providing several other online services such as:

•      Reader Store which provides ebooks download services for Sony eReaders and tablets.
•       Playnow by Sony Ericsson which covers downloading mobile contents for Sony Ericsson mobile phones such as applications, games, ringtones, music , videos and wallpapers.
• Myplay by Myplay.com which provides video, music, photo and mobile download related to the Sony Music’s artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Usher, Justin Timberlake, etc.
• Online services provided by Sony Pictures such as trailers and mobile games download.
• Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), which provides online games and entertainment.

These are just some examples and Sony has several other network based services for its regional websites as well.
Bringing all of these services under SEN roof is a challenging and difficult task but if Sony can make it, it can be a huge threat for Apple and its iTunes.