Value for money
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Creating images worth saving: concentrating on focus and exposure—the two important factors in capturing good image—was paramount in designing new cameras. Integrated technologies that work automatically to improve these factors which include multi-point auto focus, multi-pattern and pre-flash exposure modes, as well as auto focus illumination and pre-set scene modes.
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Sharper focus and more accurate exposure: Multi-point auto focus makes sure the cameras do not just focus on the center of the frame. Allowing the camera to more accurately calculate exposure, Sony’s pre-flash exposure metering actually calculates exposure with light from the flash itself.
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The camera for a board range of consumers: The CD300 model is positioned to introduce CD photography to anyone seeking a versatile, easy way to shoot, share and save great pictures.
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The CD Mavica camera with the professional edge: it is equipped with advanced photo-taking features that will appeal to the hard-to-please photo enthusiast.
1.2 Image of CD Mavica
The image and design of a new product should match the Corporate Aesthetics Management (CAM), that is to say it should match the need for an integrated approach towards company images. Sony’s mission is to “fulfil the needs of user”, so the image of CD Mavica should reflect the aim of the whole company. The designer paid attention to the relationship and balance between the perceived weight when looking at the camera and the actual weight when holding it the hands. It is not too light or too heavy. It fits perfectly in a palm. It conveys a feel befitting the durability and functionality of a portable device. In addition, the camera body design, with its subtly convex surface and flow of curved surfaces, provides and intimates sensation in the hands.
Its appearance is as it will become a standard feature on Sony digital cameras from now onwards. Obviously far bigger than a typical compact digital camera it is smaller than some of the floppy disc Mavicas and is about as small as one could expect a digital camera with a CD-R/RW transport.
The CD compartment has three quarters of the back of the camera which actually hinges open to reveal the CD mechanism; the sprung spindle grips the 8-cm CD-Rs. To change discs one has to simply clip in new one and close the door. Sony has made this simple camera but implementing high quality in the design of the Sony Digital camera.
1.3 The process analysis
A .The importance of Process Technology
In contrast to U.S. research and development which is driven by a technology push, Japanese research and development is primarily driven by a product or market push which is clearly reflected in Sony’s business strategy. There is a clear market transition from the stage when an innovation product is firstly introduced, to the stage of continuing development of the product in response to consumer demands.
In the first phase, the consumer is attracted to the product largely because of its novelty, and the innovator is temporarily without competition in the market. In the second phase, the consumer becomes increasingly cost and quality conscious, and many competitors enter the market, then the emphasis on manufacturing technology takes over from the emphasis on new technology. The core technology of a digital camera is its storage technology. In the traditional digital camera market, memory storage technology is the main technology which uses the memory stick to store images. By the end of 1999 a third memory technology had emerged, in the shape of Sony’s memory stick.
Its proprietary 10-pin connector ensures foolproof insertion, easy removal, and reliable connection and its unique Erasure Prevention Switch helps protect data from accidental erasure. With the resolution of still digital cameras increasing apace and the emergence of digital video cameras, the need for flexible, high-capacity image storage solutions started emerging.
In 1999 Iomega launched an innovative removable storage device intended for use in digital cameras as well as notebook and handheld devices. In the mid-1999 IBM entered the fray with the launch of the world’s smallest hard disk drive, its revolutionary Microdrive.
One of the major advantage of a digital camera is that it is non-mechanical. Since everything is digital, there are no moving parts-and subsequently a lot less that can go wrong. However, this didn’t deter Sony from the taking a step which can be viewed as being imaginative and retrograde at the same time-including an integrated 3.5in floppy disk drive in some of its Mavica range of digital cameras.
In the second half of 2000 Sony updated its innovative approach with the introduction of a Mavica model which stored images on 8cm/185MB CD-R media. A so-called “mini CD” provides sufficient capacity to store around 300 640x480 resolution images using JPEG compression. In early 2001 the concept advanced a tep further with support for mini rewritable media as well as write-once CD-R media. Performance implications that would have been unacceptable for digital camera applications made certain(write-time) trade-offs unavoidable. As well as being able to delete images one at a time-starting with the most recent and working backward-users have the option to erase an entire disc via a “format” function.
- Production Analysis
- Following the set based design system
Design space begins from the marketing, through styling, system and component design and etc.
In terms of marketing design, we will concern that in the mobile-communication era, people like the electronic instrument as small as possible which can be conveniently carried. So such market trends requires digital camera smaller and lighter.
Styling means reflect personal style. The design of CD Mavica series not only supplies technology to store image but also gives a chance to create image with sound depending on the people’s imagination.
Component design of MVC-CD300, conforming to the round, three-inch storage media, and its body is smoother and curved than other Mavica models. Because it is CD-based design, so it is more curved than others. And it is easily carried in a small accessory camera bag. The telescoping Carl Zeiss lens dominates the left side of the camera’s front panel. A rubberised finger grip protrudes from the right front sight, providing a comfortable hold with your right hand, which should fit comfortably around the curve of the understand curve grip. While, the right side of the camera has only a neckstrap attachment eyelet, and the command dial nearby, for adjusting exposure settings on the camera’s LCD monitor.
- Cross functional team in Sony company
Sony ‘s senior general manager explained: “I believe that one of the most important elements that lead us to success was the fact that our top management, Dr.Ibuka, Mr.Morita and Mr.Iwama, who were enthusiastic engineers as well as businessmen themselves , were able to present a clear target for product and development in the form of a new product idea, focus on R&D, have a intensive R&D for production technology, transfer of the engineers smoothes the transition from the development to production.”
C. Put into resources, people as well as technology
Sony‘s chief executives have provided their organisation with the vision, direction and resources needed to accomplish technological breakthroughs.
- Strategy, product life cycle and competitor analysis
- Product innovation strategy
- Business environment of Sony digital camera
In recent years, consumers have increasingly adopted digital devices while at the same time PC and the Internet have become common in many homes. It has become possible to create and edit images captured on digital still or digital video cameras, using a PC to make composite images and the internet to distribute and share these images for personal enjoyment.
Against this background, Sony wants to change the concept of printing that has existed until now to offer new printer solutions through improved operational functions and network services.
The consumer printers announced today, offer a CD-R/RW drive and touch panel LCD monitor make it possible to record image data onto CD-R/RW without PC and view images without a monitor. With easy to use composite image and editing functions users can customize images to make personalized calendars etc.
- Alliances and collaboration
Intel Corp. and Sony Corp. announced their intention to collaborate in developing products capable of sharing electronic content with PCs. The consumer electronic devices being talked about with this feature include digital cameras.
As part of the collaboration, the two companies said they will help make the e-home a reality by working together in several areas. One of these areas is enabling PC manufacturers to implement Sony’s memory stick read-and-write capability. With the development of the storage technology, it will also facilitate the connection between various consumers electronic devices through the USB interface.
- Strategy evaluation
- Consistency:
Sony develops new innovations on the basis of what it believes the customer wants. This quote from the (then) chairman of the company illustrates their philosophy:“ No matter how hard you have worked to produce a product, and no matter how satisfied the engineers or management may be, if the customer doesn’t see for himself that the product has value, the whole exercise is for nothing”
- Competitive Advantage:
As Sony created CD-based digital camera, it gets more competitive advantages than other digital makers.
Sony use higher technology to maintain it’s competitive advantage position in the market. “Incorporation of digital images into Windows XP” is the trend of its 2002 strategy.
- Feasibility:
Sony product umbrella supply the internal resources and benefits to its products, especially for its connection between PC and digital camera.
- Product life cycle
New product development is risky and costly, but it is critical to the long term success of an enterprise. When new-product development is successful, the potential rewards are great. However, to achieve these rewards, the product must be managed profitable throughout its life cycle.
The life-cycle theory of introduction, growth, maturity, and decline provides a template to understand different strategies.
In introduction, the focus is penetration strategies, in the growth phase on holding and building sales and on determining the most profitable strategies. The mature phase requires maintenance of sales and profit, a careful defence, and continuous innovation. Finally, in the decline phase, if it occurs, the product is milked for maximum salvage value.
Even the best-managed product might enter the decline phase of the life cycle. When this happens the product can be recycled to the opportunity identification and design phases of the new-product development process. With new innovations, product-line flankers and extensions, and repositioning and rejuvenation, there is potential for a long and profitable renewed life cycle.
Let us look at Sony digital camera’s life cycle. In 1997,sale and operating revenue of Sony is 5,658,253yen; in 1998,6,761,004yen(Japanese currency);1999, 6,804,182 yen; in 2000, the sales is 6,686,661 yen; and in 2001,it is 7314824 yen.
Sales and operating revenues of Sony from 1997—2001(unit: Japanese Currency)
We analysed the chart above and the strategies Sony used in this year, it indicated that Sony digital camera is in its maturation phase. Sony maintains of its sales and profit. From 1998, Sony‘s sales and operating revenue is keeping at a certain level, except 2000, because of Southeast Asian Economy Crisis. And in 2001, the sales and operating revenue still keeps at the high level just like before.
And there is a careful defence and continuous innovation of Sony in this stage. There are some competitors compete in this market, such as Fuji and Canon. So Sony has a careful defence strategy by adjusting advertising, repositioning the product, making product improvement to maintain the highest level of profitability in light of the competitive attack. And there is continuous innovation of Sony which enable Sony digital camera to enjoy a long and successful maturity phase.
- Competitor analysis
In the digital camera market, Sony‘s main competitors are Kodak, Canon, Fuji, and Olympus. Through our comparison of their digital camera products, the conclusion is that all the competitors haven’t reached the technology as high as Sony, that is to say none of their product has the technology of CD-R/RW based storage. So from this angle we can say that Sony is the technology leader within these competitors. However we have made a detailed analysis by choosing FujiFilm FinePix F601Z and Canon Powershot G1 to compare to MVC-CD 300.
Fuji F601Z:
Its main features include 3.1million effective pixels, sensor type is CCD, these two features are as same as Sony’s; but the compressed format is still JPEG, lower than MVC-CD300’s MEPG format, and the most different technology is the storage type, Fuji still use the Smartmedia card (a type of memory stick), but Sony has advanced this technology to CD-R/RW type.
Canon G1:
Canon is also an excellent camera manufacturer, its main features of G1 include 3.14 million effective pixels, sensor type is also CCD, JPEG compressed format as Fuji F601Z and using Compact Flash (type 1 or 2) as the storage format.
- Digital camera development in the future
Like Sony’s other Mavica cameras, the CD 300 is enjoyable to us; it eliminates some of the Dig cam community’s perceived limitations to the CD recordable technology. Other improvement includes higher resolution, a greatly improved user interface, and buffer memory to greatly reduce the shot-to-shot cycle time.
Based on such technology, we analyse and predict the future digital trends will be incorporation of digital images into Windows XP.
The historical trends of digital camera have experienced the periods from “save to disk and better battery life”, “USB cameras”, “higher capacity storage and resolution” to “ cheaper high capacity storage”. With these trends, the digital camera market also experienced a growth-to-mature development. In the future there will be extra memory to store your images, from 2 Mega to hundreds of Megas, which are needed for higher resolutions; and higher the resolution, the larger image file size will be, which will allow to create bigger images. Further more, instead of film, the digital camera may use the CCD device which processes the picture after it is snapped and saves it in the camera’s memory, that is to say one will be allowed to create his/her own films by using digital camera.
Since Sony digital camera’s strategy is not price sensitive, so when they launch a new product, they should keep the price as the same level as their competitors, even though competitors’ price falling deeply, Sony will not cut the price sensitively.
Conclusion:
Sony MVC- CD 300 has been through various phases of product development to reach where it is now. Sony has very minutely studied the customer requirements and has incorporated those required features by better product design. It has taken care of all the attributes of Design some of which are: (Competitive tool, Idea generation, Product styling, Aesthetics, Corporate culture etc.). It conveys a message of high image and high quality to its customers. There is a continuous process of Research & Development for Sony and the senior management is also committed to design a better and better product everyday.
There is an essence of teamwork at song which is formed by a group of skilled and qualified designers and which are all involved to make a better Sony digital and to some extent they have been able to do so, the example being Sony MVC- CD 300 which in itself is a very unique technology. And as we have already gathered from its Product life cycle the graph is moving positively which shows Sony has a very bright future ahead.
REFERENCES
Websites:
www.sony.com
www.sonystyle.com
www.ft.com
www.businessweek.com
finance.yahoo.com
Textbooks:
Managing Technological Innovation
(Ettlie JE2000, John Wiley and Sons Inc)
Design in Business
(Bessant J, Bruce M and Oliver N 2001, Pearson)
