Sony has numerous resources and capabilities ranging from tangible to intangible that give them their own unique competitive advantage as well as put them in positions that could potentially hurt their growth and strategy. Sony in the past has made bad strategic decisions in aspects of which technology they pursue. When video tapes were becoming popular Sony’s BetaMax was a failure and now today the Sony brand is leading with their involvement with the Blu-ray.The gaming industry has seen increasing rapid advancements in technology that is making it more of a challenge for companies to compete.
The role of resources and capabilities as a basis for strategy has become very important to create a secure base for formulating their strategy and also provides the base for creating better profits for survival. The Sony PS3 is technologically more advanced than its rivals substitute gaming systems but is pricey to the normal gaming consumer.The technology in the PS3 does provide them a very valuable intangible resource that is difficult to replicate. Their brand is known worldwide, their reputation in quality products has become an invaluable intangible resource to their company. Although they have made some poor decisions in the past with their strategy they have been able to exploit their internal resources to create competitive advantage.
Its Blu-Ray disc player has provided an original and new way to store high-definition digital content, ranging from video games to movies.Sony’s creation of the blu-ray put it on the market to compete for the next standard format of next generation DVD’s. Their investment in this technology did set them back but helped differentiate themselves from the low graphic Wii and Microsoft’s XBOX 360 that was hoping for the HDDVD to become the new format for high-definition digital content. The “Cell”, another technological advancement for Sony, with the Blu-ray disc drive has given them vast differentiation from its rivals and has provided them with strength while creating a weakness in production costs.
