Sony has definitely seen better days. The company posted a fiscal loss of 5.8 billion (yes, billion with a big fat B) in 2011, and the shucking of the optical drive subsidiary is part of their restructuring plan.
For those shopping around for optical drives, you may in the near future see Sony-branded optical drives selling at fire sale prices just to get rid of the stock. However it goes without saying that you should only buy them on the expectation that if they break, just throw them out and don’t bother trying to get the Sony warranty honored. Or to be more specific, in-store warranty/return yes, corporate warranty no.
What the hell happened to Sony?
A lot of stuff that makes for many sleepless nights. A 24-year-low market share price, earthquake and tsunami that cost the company over 3 billion, and a whole lot of other crapola.
It is actually amazing that Sony continues to survive; they’re doing so and making large efforts to get back into the swing of things, much of which you’ll see in 2013. An example of this is that in the gaming market, Sony is going to attempt to beat Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console (Xbox 720) with the PlayStation 4 by getting to the market first. This along with other plans (mobile market being a big one) are all in the works by Sony to try and get back the glory they once had in the electronics marketplace.
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