Sony Reader Unlikely to Be Affected by Upcoming Job Cuts

April 9th, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder ? 1 Comment ? hardware news

There?s scary news in the gadget world today as Sony announces plans to cut 10 thousand workers, or about 6% of its global workforce. Nikkei broke the story last night, and the IBTimes elaborated on the story.

Sony will reportedly sell off its chemical products division and cut about 3,000 workers. The Tokyo-based company also looks to make cuts within its small and midsize LCD operations; in all likelihood, this move is intended for Sony to better compete with Samsung, which is the world?s No. 1 supplier of TVs and flat screen panels. It wasn?t clear if Sony would be cutting these jobs in Japan, overseas, or both.

There?s no mention of the consumer products (like Sony?s new tablets or the Sony Reader). Naturally I was concerned about the news, so I followed up with my contact at Sony. Here?s what I was told:

We have not announced a new e-Reader model yet, however Sony remains committed to the Reader category.

I?ve been concerned about the Sony Reader since, well, since Sony released the x50 models back in 2010.? Sony had been consistently out-innovated be virtually everyone in the market,? and that now includes several no name companies who have since grown to be (at a minimum) decent hardware providers.

TBH, I?m surprised that today?s news doesn?t include the Sony Reader. But I guess it slipped by. Perhaps it?s not costly enough to be worth cutting. On the other hand, I?m beginning to wonder if Sony regards the tablets and ereaders as prestige projects. They could be valued more for their appearance than their profitability.

image by arthit

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