Sony to spend $1B on marketing

John Kennedy interviewed Sony Europe president Chris Deering for Siliconrepublic.com. A few snippets from the excellent article follow:

Over the next three years Sony will invest some US$1bn in product marketing as well as sponsoring the FIFA World Cup for 2008.

Deering puts the company’s 21st-Century strategy succinctly: “We are not simply a technology company, we are an entertainment company.”

Snip.

Deering also unveiled the first Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, the W800, which could hit the marketplace as early as July. The move comes as a shock to other players in the market such as Motorola, which is working with Apple to roll out phones with iPod technologies later this year.

Snip.

Deering offered a rare insight into the forthcoming PS3 reckoned by many to be launching this Christmas. While he wouldn’t elaborate on a date, Deering said networking will be key to the PS3 and that with the cell chip included, it will be 1,000 times more powerful than the PlayStation 2. “Imagine 256 billion floating point calculations — that’s your engine room. The graphics will be fantastic if you have a HDTV. We will pioneer a new realm of HD gaming. It’s exciting and it’s coming your way.

Read the article here . . . you will be glad you did.

Double hat tip to Joe of the Pinehurst Thread for the link.