SONY's Business Plans

President and CEO of SCEI, Kaz Hirai has stated an operating loss of $612 million for fiscal 2008 and He admits SONY doesn't expect to turn a profit any time soon. But that's not going to stop Hirai from trying to change things. He told Japan Today he already has a plan: "We need to quickly bring our PlayStation business on a break-even level and later to profitability."

He's laid out a set of targets to accomplish. Hirai said Sony needs "a strategy where buying hardware is not the endpoint but instead a starting point that can offer new experiences." This includes bringing the PlayStation Network to non-gaming electronics like televisions and digital cameras, shades of what Howard Stringer said weeks before. And speaking of PSN, part of the strategy is aimed at boosting digital sales from $209 million last year, to $523 million. I guess this means expect a lot more content spread across a lot more devices.

This may already be in practice because the new Sony Ericsson Satio and Aino both have PS3 Remote Play compatibility. Its only use is to transport media between systems. So it won’t play games. But on the plus side it introduces the Media Home. This automatically pulls media from Media Go on your PC over Wi-Fi when it is placed in its stand and will be available in three different colours.

The Aino is more reminiscent of the PSP phone rumours but it is the closest thing we may ever get due to the fact that it has Remote Play features.

The phone includes a dock that syncs media wirelessly to your PC when connected and from a distance; it seems to be just about the sexiest phone Sony Ericssons ever made.