Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp., the world’s second-largest maker of consumer electronics, will probably revise its annual forecast to a profit from a loss on higher holiday season sales of Bravia flat-screen televisions and digital cameras.

Chief Executive Howard Stringer may raise the Tokyo-based company’s forecast to a 48.9 billion yen ($427 million) net income from a 10 billion yen loss, according to the median forecast of the six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 probably fell 56 percent to 62.8 billion yen because of costs to cut jobs, the survey showed.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sharp Corp. may join Sony in raising full-year profit outlooks when they report earnings next week. The three companies are increasing spending in factories to meet rising demand for large TVs spurred by sporting events such as the Winter Olympics and World Cup soccer tournament.

“You’re going to see very strong growth in Europe over the coming six months, with the World Cup obviously helping,” said Stephen Hall, who helps oversee the equivalent of $572 million at Britannic Asset Management in Glasgow, Scotland. “I’m bullish on flat-screens.”

Stringer, 63, is making progress on his pledge to eliminate 10,000 jobs and cut the number of gadgets that the company makes to boost earnings at its consumer electronics business.

Sony this week said it may cut about 900 jobs, 700 of them in the U.S., and shut two U.S. factories that make cathode-ray tube TV parts. It will also shutter a plant in Japan that made the original Walkman music player in 1979 and shift production to Malaysia and China.

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Here’s something cool we came across at the car audio section of the Sony Booth:

Generic description:

This handy package lets you receive the great programming of SIRIUS through any 2004-up Sony stereo with satellite radio controls.

The SIRIUS radio plugs right into the back of your Sony stereo, and sends channel information, including channel name, artist name, program name, and song title, to your stereo’s display. The radio also features a built-in pass-through connection, so you can keep your Sony CD changer hooked up. The package includes a roof-mount SIRIUS antenna.

Note: A subscription to SIRIUS is also required.

This will be available at Crutchfield (and many other retailers) in mid Feburary for about $100.

Sony presented a ultraportable headphone that was reminscent of the ‘eggo’ line from years ago dubbed MDR-710LP. I wore it for about a minute, and it was connected to a NW-E507; I would say it’s a fair headphone for the price if you can’t score an ‘eggo’ and want something compact and convienant but can also take a bruising. The sound was nothing to write home about (hence why I’m writing here, boohoo) — bass present, no real clarity in the midrange with accelerated and troubling highs — but I’d recommend it to someone who doesn’t mind spending $59.95 (msrp) for the heck of it.

Right click and save or view image accordingly for full view.

(dolled up)

A picture of its amazing folding ability, after the jump..

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It appears that the infamous Connect Player is about to bite the dust; this is not too surprising considering the unprecedented amount of woes that users of the program have reported across the Internet. Apparently Sonicstage will recieve an update (!), and deliever equivalent functionality to NW-A series users. One can only assume that Sonicstage has now been resurrected, and will be updated often once again. Connect Player may possibly see a few maintenance releases, but it seems as if the software is finally being laid to rest. Incredible.

UPDATE: Sony has edited the below website and removed references to an upcoming version of Sonicstage that will mirror the current functionality of Connect Player. Don’t worry, they are still going to release such. (Thanks, sxc)

The notice can be found at Sony Europe’s support website.

Sony reorganizes struggling Connect service
By John Borland; news from ZDNet (January 20, 2006)

Sony said Friday that it will strengthen ties between its portable audio division and the struggling Connect digital music download unit, an iTunes rival launched in early 2004.

The Connect service was Sony’s entry into the digital music market that was, and still is, dominated by Apple Computer’s iTunes. However, since its launch, Connect has gained little traction with consumers, while Sony’s portable audio players have been overshadowed by the explosive success of Apple’s iPod.

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Most of us knew it, but I guess the mainstream media is finally picking up on some of the great fallacies of Connect Player. This is going to be very bad for Sony, because there has been little to no effort within the company to promote the new experience and this will cast severe doubt in the mind of the consumer.

(The Times - Simon de Bruxelles) Sony is advising consumers not to use software supplied with its new range of digital music players after hundreds of users complained that it caused their computers to crash.The new Sony MP3 Walkman was billed as the company’s long-awaited answer to the iPod and became one of the biggest-selling electrical items for Christmas.

But Sony admitted that the software sold with the player has “major problems”, which has left many owners unable to use the players. The Connect Player programme is designed to transfer music from the user’s computer to the player and to connect them to Sony’s music sales website. But distraught buyers have been posting messages on websites cursing Sony. Others have returned their £199 players for a refund.

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SonyStyle Japan Ltd. announced today that a special Franz Ferdinand NW-A1000/RM model will be available for sale via SonyStyle Japan at 33,000 yen (approx. USD$286) each in limited quantities beginning February 2006. To be precise, only 100 units will be available and pre-orders are divided into two groups: January 26 and February 9, 2006.

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