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Sony PSX likely to dominate Japan market next year

Sony Corp's PSX, a digital video disk recorder combined with a video-game console, may gain as much as 45 percent of the DVD recorder market in Japan by the end of next year, the company says.

Sony, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, expects to ship at least 1 million units of the PSX, which went on sale in Japan on last Saturday, said Taro Takamine, a spokesman for Sony in Tokyo, confirming an earlier report in the Asian Wall Street Journal.

Shipments of DVD recorders may rise to 2.2 million units next year, an industry group has said.

The PSX combines the PlayStation 2's online game-playing with video recording and storage for digital photos. It sells for as much as ?99,800 (US$924). Bic Camera Co, which operates 22 electronics outlets throughout Japan, said Saturday it had received 5,000 pre-sale orders for the PSX between Nov. 28 and last Friday, a record for audio-visual devices.

"Demand is very, very strong," Takamine said. "PSX will trigger further growth of the DVD recorder market."

Takamine declined to say how many consoles were shipped to retailers ahead of the first weekend of sales.

Shares in Tokyo-based Sony, which have fallen more than a quarter since the beginning of the year, rose ?80, or 2.2 percent, to ?3,660 at 1:38pm in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading. They earlier rose as much as 3.1 percent.

Sony's Kisarazu factory, in Chiba, east of Tokyo, is running at full capacity, Takamine said. The factory also makes Sony's HX- 10 DVD recorders, also known the "Sogoroku," which costs between ?100,000 and ?110,000.

Japan's overall DVD-recorder market will increase 76 percent next year from a forecast domestic demand of 1.25 million units for the year ending Dec. 31, the Japan Electronics & Information Technology Industries Association has said.

DVD recorder sales are growing faster than any other consumer electronics item, the group says.
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