In what may be its final update before the service is put to pasture, Sony has given the Music Unlimited app on iOS an update….on the day it announced that it would ending the service. So what can we expect from Music Unlimited Version 2.3.0, which weighs in at 7.7 MB? From the official changelog:

• New: Skip & skip back by swiping the album cover art
• Fixes minor bugs on player features

The update will likely go by unnoticed as the reason Sony is shutting down the service is due to lack of consumer interest, i.e. enough subscribers to warrant the cost of the service. While I’m sure that it’s purely coincidental that an update was pushed the same date that Sony would announce the service’s death, (and I’m 100% certain that those working on the app have had no idea that Sony would be killing Music Unlimited) the situation is comedically and sadly very representative of the internal disarray that Sony faces. No division is safe and no plan/initiative/service has a long term vision where software and hardware are working together to achieve it.

While Sony ponders if it should look into join ventures or closures when it comes to its mobile and television division, I can’t help but find the strategy defeatist. While cutting businesses and services that aren’t profitable is smart, you can’t cut/close your way to profitability. So yes Sony should kill things that don’t worry but they should also be doubling their efforts on growing businesses that are working or finding how to fix ones that are not.

I can’t help but think of the Apple of the 90’s and the Apple of today which just yesterday announced the highest quarterly profit of any company in history. Yes, history, and yes, they even beat out oil companies. In a nutshell, Apple in the 90’s was near bankruptcy and with Steve Jobs back at the helm, the company cut product lines that didn’t work while reinvesting in the products that did work. While they simplified, they also strengthened the lines and while they worked on winning back consumers, they were busy in their labs building the future.

Sony is cutting business and jobs left and right but we’ve yet to see them do it in a way that improves their products or portfolio. Instead all we get is one less Sony product in the market. Then again, with a lack of proper marketing, maybe consumers aren’t even noticing that, which may be the true problem that plagues Sony.

Discuss:

Do you think part of Sony’s problem is a lack of a long term vision?

[Via iTunes]