Sony NEX Launch – detailed transcription

The UK in-depth introduction to NEX
Rachel Banin, head of the Alpha product division for Sony UK, introduced the hands-on press conference for UK and Scandinavian journalists:
This product is a new and exciting surprise for Sony, and we’re really excited about bringing it to market, and we’ve got really big plans for it – and high expectations for it also.
Here is a UK-specific slide, highlighting what we expect the market potential to be for this kind of category – compact interchangeable lens cameras. We think that market is going to be about 100,000 units in FY 2010 (April 2010 to March 2011) and we’re very encouraged by the positive actual sales results that we’ve now seen come through for FY 09.
Certainly looking at the kind of coverage which the GFK data indicator gives, that 30,000 units (2009) might even be on the kind of pessimistic side. We’ve seen some good developments so far and we’re expecting a lot, lot more in 2010 and the key reasons for that, I think, are obviously new brands coming into the marketplace, including Sony
Sony is starting to be able to address a market which is not just DSLR consumer. That’s very important because we don’t believe this market is going to 100% cannibalise the DSLR business. We think it’s incremental and by appealing to people who are used to using a digital still camera – and who are perhaps ready to take an upgrade to a camera that offers them a higher performance, better flexibility and better creativity – we can generate this kind of business potential.
So communicating with consumers has been a very, very important part of the product development process for NEX in particular. We’ve really involved them right from day one in terms of testing out concepts with them, testing out some prototypes and then, finally, testing them with an almost complete product and I have to say the response has been very, very positive from the groups that we tested.
They were tested also with similar products available from the market place at the moment including some micro DSLR products, for which there were certain limitations identified – be that physical limitations, or limitations in the performance of the camera itself. The response that we got to NEX was what we were really hoping to achieve – that it was something new and unique, that it was a completely different camera category in itself and revolutionary in that sense, and easy to use and allows the consumer to take that step further and get the extra special results that they can’t get from a digital still camera.
So that’s really it as an introduction to the product. I’m going to hand over to Paul now. He’s going to talk in a lot more detail about the NEX products.
Paul Genge, technical sales manager for Sony Alpha division UK:
You remember last night’s dinner when I asked you which was the camera you would like to own, given to you, any choice, you could have whatever you like. I was fairly confident that by the end of the day most of you would switch your allegiance to wanting at least one of these. I think as soon as you get a hands on opportunity with these, from the moment you pick it up and realise what a quality proposition it really is, it’s really a nice camera to use, shoot and own. So you’ll get your opportunity a bit later. Right, let’s get cracking.
Sony is very much a technical innovation company. We operate in numerous electronic areas and every business that we operate in has radically changed over the last ten years or less really. I mean, it wasn’t so long ago when I was a little kid with the Argos catalogue writing down what I wanted on my Christmas list – a Sony tape Walkman. Today, nobody wants a Walkman, it’s all iPods, it’s mobile phones and the way you get your music and they way you handle your music is entirely different to what it was like ten years ago.
I used to sell these – a 35mm compact camera, eight or nine years ago was a big thing that cost £300. Today for £300 you can have a glossy slimline, feature-rich, high quality, digital compact camera. Digital photography has changed not only the form factor but also the way the customer experiences photography.
Anyone still got a big-box CRT TV at home?
Today televisions are slimline, they hold to the wall, and in the future is 3D and internet download services direct to your television. You can also plug many devices into them and use your television for other purposes than just watching television. Today we record to hard disc drives and we watch high definition movies on Blu-Ray. It wasn’t so long ago that we all had our individual cassettes and woe betide you if you recorded your football over the top of Mum’s Coronation Street!
Today those arguments don’t exist. Every market has changed radically, everything has been improved, everything has been made faster, everything is delivering a better consumer experience. Or is it?
Because on the left-hand side there (he shows a slide with two cameras, the smaller on the left) you’ve got a Minolta Dynax camera and on the right you’ve got an Alpha 550. Have we really changed SLR photography? I don’t think so because really the functionality, operational experience and form factor is nearly identical.
Yes, we’ve taken out the film gubbins and we’ve put in the digital and we’ve added a tilting screen because it’s digital with Live View but, actually, is it any more appealing a product proposition as it was ten years ago? Not relevant, it’s still seen as a specialist product, it’s still seen as something you’ve got to learn and experience and “get into” photography. So really we haven’t actually delivered a new consumer propositional experience in the same way as all those other devices have done – until now.