They're also world leaders in software development for robotics.
Japan also developed 3G (UMTS), which is why Japanese phones no longer dominate the Japanese market.
Combine that with the wide inventory of platforms they're in - imagine a Sony-branded de-Googled version of Android running on everything from PSPs to smart TVs.
They're excellently positioned, and they've demonstrated they can make good software in the various PlayStation-related devices.
I'd only like to add Sony's tendency for crippling devices, probably starting with the MiniDisc and continuing this fine tradition until today.
The underlying basis, of course, is the media division.
It's a shame really, when you look at Sony's past. Hell! The Walkman was an incredibly innovative device. While the iPod essentially was a repackaging of existing technologies (great repackaging, but still) Sony's Walkman was actually the invention of music on the go.
What a shame.
Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that, whilst I could digitally upload music to the device, I could not digitally download music from it. Unbelievable! I did a few by attaching the headphone to the mic port on my computer and playing the music in real time, whilst recording on the PC. But this was such a time consuming process that I quickly lost interest. A shame, because I did get a few really good recordings.
Instead we got single-write cds (no one bothered with rewritable) until finally usb sticks made optical obsolete.
But yeah, Sony seems like a very divided company - if the myriad divisions got together to work on a single unified customer-facing infrastructure of devices and e-store and whatnot, they could re-take that spectacular brand power they had in the early '90s. But their internal politics will never allow that, sadly.
The best GUI's and UX considerations for video games are a completely different kettle of sushi than what you want from a consumer electronics device.
I want to play a puzzle with Super Mario.
I want to answer a red-eye phone call in the middle of the night with my iPhone without playing a game (it still has a lovely app wrapper for puzzle games, right there on the customisable app launching springboard for when I want that sort of software).
I adore Japanese hardware/software design, but I don't want my toothbrush or phone to be kawaii.
Not to mention Japanese games are notorious for their inscrutable, awkward and sometimes downright user-hostile controls, menus, save systems, etc. (As per common western opinion; who knows, perhaps the Japanese truly prefer it?)
But when considering what is great about Japanese games, no-one has ever lauded the game-user interface. Their games are largely great in spite of that side of things.
Yet I was amazed by how long it took Sony and Nintendo to build something as seemingly prosaic as a usable menu system in their recent consoles. Part of me wonders if the Apple/Microsoft patent battles of the 80's deterred a lot of capable non-US companies from doing any work in operating systems.
The article seems to ignore any discussion of startup culture, which I've read elsewhere is a challenge in a country whose business culture has been defined by the "salaryman" working their entire career for one company. I mean, should we be surprised that companies around for the better part of a century are getting disrupted?
But how much credit is because of the programmers being better than the rest, and not because of the creativity of the designers, the graphics, or even the hardware the games were created to run on?
The japanese are pretty weak in english in general.
Source: 84 Play Podcast interview with Gregg Tavares (I think, I cant relisten to the podcast now). Linked if interested http://8-4.jp/blog/?p=1423&lang=en
Idiots...
Also my experience with japanese products is that they don't "get" software, not that they are bad at it. I am sure that the developers are as competent as anywhere in the world but they deliver what they are ordered to.
When you make a game for a console, mistakes are very costly: it makes a lot of sense to get it right the first time. Attention to details is a trait that Japanese culture really emphasises (always think about every possible thing that can fail, triple check, etc...).
Now, for most software products, that's a different story. I think that's part of the story why you don't see great software companies in Japan.
(just kidding, as far as I know)