Sony Corp, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, will start sales of 12 new models of flat-panel televisions in a bid to grab the largest share of the expanding domestic market and spur profitability.
Sony, which said it ranks second in the Japanese market for flat-panel displays, plans to raise its share of sales to 30 percent in revenue terms this year from about 20 percent now. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which holds a 22 percent share, and Hitachi Ltd both released new models of the televisions last week.
"This is a market where makers have to introduce new models to attract customers and improve profitability," said Eiji Yoshifuji, Sony's general manager for display marketing, in Tokyo. "Customers are going to increasingly want flat-panel displays."
Sony's net income shrank 98 percent in the first three months of its business year as a dearth of new hit products hurt its market share in films and electronics. The Tokyo-based company has lost a quarter of its market value this year, falling below that of Matsushita Electric, which has gained 24 percent.
The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association forecasts flat-panel TV sales to rise two-thirds this year in Japan to 1.37 million units from 823,000 units last year.
Sales will rise a further 57 percent next year to 2.15 million units, the industry group said.
Sony will make 25,000 of the new models a month and sell them for between ?600,000 (US$5,100) and ?2.5 million each, it said in a news release. Tsutomu Niimura, executive vice president, declined to give sales estimates for the new products, to be sold only in Japan.
Consumers are switching to slim flat-panel models, which use liquid-crystal displays or plasma-display panel screens, as prices drop, replacing bulky cathode-ray tube TV sets.
Sony also said it will begin selling three new types of conventional TVs. Sales of the 15 new models will start in October and November, it said.
Sony has reorganized its factories in Japan so it can make more of the flat-panel TV sets. The company in March stopped making cathode-ray tube televisions at one of its three TV factories in Aichi, central Japan, Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida said today. The factory, which used to assemble cathode-ray tube TVs with parts supplied by the other two plants, now makes only flat-panel models.
The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association forecasts sales of flat-panel TVs will surge 4.5 times to 6.9 million units in 2005, from 1.53 million last year.
Matsushita Electric, maker of Panasonic-brand products and the world's largest consumer-electronics manufacturer, said last week it will target a 30 percent market share in the flat-panel TV market in 2005.
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