Sony’s Ex-Chief Calls for Industry to Change

Nobuyuki Idei, the former chief executive of Sony Corp., said Monday that Japan’s consumer electronics industry was “dying” and called for companies to adapt to new consumer demands.

Idei, who has spent more than four decades at Sony, the world’s second-biggest consumer electronics maker, said companies should focus on combining technologies and applications to sustain growth and expand. Idei is still Sony’s chief corporate advisor and will stay with the company until May.

“Because of the change of the flat television, still people believe that [the] consumer electronic market is one you can defend,” Idei said at a technology conference in Barcelona, Spain. “But people want to use television as a portal to the Net. Consumer electronics companies should change themselves and also should integrate their operations.”

Idei stepped down as CEO in 2005, when Sony reported its first annual loss. Rivals such as Apple Computer Inc. and Sharp Corp. took away Sony’s lead in televisions and music players, leading Howard Stringer, the company’s current CEO, to propose eliminating 10,000 jobs.

“I’m optimistic in the mid-term that Sony can recover,” Idei said. “Sony split into three different companies but in the future you should see Sony as more horizontal rather than vertical.”

Apple overtook Sony as the leader in portable music devices with the iPod device because Sony owns a music company, Idei said. Apple CEO Steve Jobs “has a lot of freedom compared to Sony.”