Sony's (SNE) New Frontier

Sony’s (SNE) management told investors at the company’s annual meeting that much of the company’s restructuring is behind it and that it is time for the firm to get back on the road to growth.

The company has made progress, but most of it is due to strength at the company’s movie studio and its electronics business which build products like high-end TVs.

Sony may never recover from the slow sales of the PS3. The company says that 380 new titles will be launched for the game platform during the next year, but new titles will also come to market for its rivals the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360. In other word’s, it is hard to see what advantages the PS3 will have over the next few quarters. The product is already much more expensive than its competition and a price cut only hurts Sony’s margins.

The other area where Sony has no clue about its future is in portable consumer electronics devices. Its Walkman was once the envy of all other companies that wanted to be in the small media device field. But, that crown has moved to Apple (AAPL) and its iPod, and it is hard to imagine Sony coming out with a device that could take any meaningful market share.

Sony now is what it is, an electronics device company with a movie studio bolted onto it. If it continues to sell TV screens and release hit movies, the company will do fine. But, that is the extent of it.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.