Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp is cautious about the upcoming holiday season as jittery shoppers could become more careful about spending during the financial crisis, a company executive said in Taipei yesterday.
Sony, however, retained its goal of delivering 17 million liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TV sets this fiscal year, which began on April 1. That would represent around 60 percent growth from last year’s 10.6 million units.
“Growing uncertainty [about the financial crisis] makes people jittery. We will be cautious about market demand [in the traditionally busy season],” Yoshinari Sengoku, a general manager at Sony’s flat TV business division, told a press briefing on the sidelines of the launch of a new range of TVs.
PHOTO: CHEN MEI-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Sengoku believed LCD TV sales around the globe would continue to grow this year and next year.
“I am optimistic about LCD TV sales in the medium and long term,” Sengoku said. “I am confident that Sony will hit its shipment target for 2008.”
DisplaySearch, an Austin, Texas-based researcher, also kept its forecast of 105 million LCD TV sales for this year unchanged. Next year, LCD TV sales may grow by 25 percent to 131 million sets, DisplaySearch data showed.
“There will be seasonal demand this year. We expect people will still buy TVs as first-tier brands are expected to cut prices sharply during the upcoming season,” David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president at DisplaySearch, said via telephone.
The price of a high-definition 40-inch LCD TV may fall US$200, or at least 20 percent, to between US$699 and US$799 per unit, from more than US$1,000 per unit now, Hsieh said.
“Growth is likely to be weaker than before, as demand in the US and Europe may weaken because of the financial crisis,” Hsieh said.
Commenting on Sony’s partnership with Taiwanese flat panel suppliers, Sengoku said it was Sony’s goal to maintain close partnerships with panel suppliers in the long term.
“AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) are good partners of Sony,” Sengoku said.
Next year, Sony plans to add a new joint venture with Sharp Co to its panel suppliers. Currently, the Japanese TV giant buys LCD panels mostly from S-LCD, a flat-panel venture with South Korean Samsung Electronics Co.
“That, to some extent, may have some [negative] impact on local panel makers next year,” Hsieh said.
Taiwanese panel makers supply between 30 percent and 40 percent of the LCD screens Sony uses for its slim-screen TVs, DisplaySearch figures showed.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS