Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp aims to recoup its top position in Taiwan's rapidly-growing television market this year by launching more and bigger-sized liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs, a company official said yesterday.
The Japanese TV brand regained the leading position in the mainstream 32-inch size segment in Taiwan in December last year, with the help of its lower-priced "Bravia" sub-brand last year.
"The Bravia series is very successful. We have been trying to catch up with consumer demand since we launched the brand," said Hiroyuki Oda, president of Sony's consumer electronics division in Taiwan.
"We hope the growth momentum will carry into this year," Oda said. "We hope to take the number one position this year," he said.
Oda also said Sony aims for double-digit growth in sales for his division this year from last year.
However, he declined to give detailed numbers.
Sony lost its top position in the nation's LCD TV market to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which sell consumer electronics products under the Panasonic brand, in 2004 and 2003.
But the company was on target last quarter globally, nabbing around a 15 percent share of the market.
Sony overtook Sharp Corp to become the world's biggest LCD TV brand due to the successful launch of the Bravia series and optimized panel capacity through S-LCD Corp, its TFT-LCD joint venture with Samsung, according to a DisplaySearch report released yesterday
Sony's progress was also helped by strong demand for large-sized LCD TVs, fueled by an almost 50 percent drop in prices year-on-year, the market researcher said.
In the third quarter of last year, Sony was ranked No.4 with a market share of less than 9 percent, it added.
DisplaySearch expects sales of LCD TVs to more then double to 42 million units around the globe this year, from 19 million last year.
"We believe the growth will also be rapid in Taiwan," Oda said.
Oda said LCD TV sales are expected to reach as high as 500,000 units this year, from around 300,000 units last year, with LCD TV sales accounting for 50 percent of total TV sales.
"The trend is clear that LCD TVs are taking over from traditional CRT [cathode-ray-tube] TVs," Oda said.
He said more consumers will now consider buying the slim-screen TVs as prices are stabilizing after plunging in the second half of last year.
Based on the optimistic outlook, Sony plans to introduce more models with large-sized screens in the Taiwanese market, Oda said.
He declined to comment on whether Sony would increase its purchases of LCD panels from local manufacturers -- including AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) -- this year amid supply constraints at S-LCD.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
RSS