Show me the money!

I'm no Donald Trump, Alan Sugar or even a Jerry McGuire for sure but here's a fact that might just shock you. Sony have made a loss on every single television it has sold in the last seven years. This means that the best way to do harm to them as a company is to buy a TV from them.

So is this an isolated practice? Let's look at some others:

- Amazon are subsidising every Kindle Fire sold to the tune of $50. This kind of makes more sense when you understand that the kindle is a mobile portal to the Amazon shopfront. Nonetheless the fact remains that if it were priced with a reasonable profit margin it would most likely cost another $150 more. How would you feel paying $350 for a Kindle Fire? It doesn't look so tempting now.

- Google have not made a cent out of Android. Again Android is a loss leader (well a giveaway, actually) in order to ensure that the google advertising revenue stream is retained in the mobile world.

In this world of artificial stock market valuations, ipo's, market shares it's worth actually stopping once and a while to figure out that companies have to make money to survive and invest. And the only company I can think of that genuinely does this is Apple. I can't imagine Apple running a product for seven months at a loss, never mind seven quarters or seven years.

Every now and again it'll launch a device that doesn't meet expectations. Remember the iPod Hi-Fi and the G4 cube. However when these misses occur as a company it is ruthless in cutting its losses and focussing on products that are doing well. And that's just as it should be. Loss leaders and market share grabs are fine but somewhere down the somebody needs to show the money .. or else what's the point?

Why do people hate Skyline?

I saw Skyline a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was quite surprised to see the scathing reviews from critics and moviegoers alike.

OK the script isn't great but neither was it that bad either. The cast and characters were OK too but I found the story, direction and effects all above average. IMDB rates this movie at 4.7 (based upon 4000 ratings) when I last checked but I'd score it somewhere in the 7.xs and I'm a pretty harsh movie critic.

So why the discrepancy? Well maybe I had an off day and just enjoyed a crap movie too much, but the doubt at the back of my mind I suspect that there is something more sinister at work here.

It turns out that the Brothers Strausse (silly name I know) effects company Hydraulx Filmz is contracted to work on Sony's big budget alien invasion movie Battle: Los Angeles due for release in early 2011 and that the Strausse Brothers didn't declare their involvement in Skyline to Sony. From what I gather Sony wanted Skyline pulled until after the release of their film. All in all it sounds a bit hypocritical of Sony to me given the acknowledged dirty tricks they've employed in the past

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4741259.stm

but hey I wouldn't want to get on their bad side. Whatever the truth of the situation I figure that Skyline is a pretty good movie and when the budget is factored in it becomes a pretty amazing movie. Count me in for Skyline 2. And as for poor old Sony - don't worry - the trailers for Battle: Los Angeles look great too so I'm in for that movie too.