Sony Corp, forecasting its first back-to-back annual losses in half a century, will start selling netbook personal computers from next month in an attempt to benefit from rising demand for the cheaper, scaled-down machines.
The computers will be sold for about ¥60,000 (US$630) in Japan and will be available under the Vaio brand in 54 countries, Satoshi Ihara, a marketing manager at Sony, told reporters at a briefing yesterday in Tokyo, where the company is based.
Sony trails Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the Taiwanese pioneer of the laptops known as netbooks, and Toshiba Corp in offering a low-cost, small-screen computer with reduced processing power, a product category set to become the fastest-growing segment of the PC industry this year.
Prices “will probably stop falling soon and our price won’t be a big hurdle,” Ihara said, declining to provide an overall sales target for the product.
The company said in May it would probably boost sales of Vaio computers to 6.2 million units in the year ending next March from 5.8 million units a year earlier.
Sony said in February it would combine Vaio computers, Walkman music players and games under Kazuo Hirai, who would focus on creating gadgets that work with each other and connect to the Internet.
“We plan to release more products for the Vaio to attract customers,” Ihara said yesterday.
Sony fell 2.3 percent to close at ¥2,355 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.3 percent.
PATROL PARTNERS: The ‘Chiayi’ and the ‘Penghu’ departed for a two-day joint patrol of Palau’s exclusive economic zone, the CGA’s second diplomatic visit to the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) set a record for its southernmost deployment of a coast guard vessel as the vessels Chiayi and the Penghu reached Palau’s Pulo Anna Island on Saturday in a cooperative exercise between the two countries. The island, about 217 nautical miles (401km) southwest of Koror in the Palauan state of Sonsorol and 1,220 nautical miles from Taiwan’s southernmost point, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), is the furthest south a CGA vessel has sailed. The two vessels are in Palau for the coast guard’s second diplomatic visit to the country. They docked at Malakal Harbor on Tuesday last week. The coast guard
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
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BATCH 1: The military has plans to assign the weapons to the army to defend Taiwan proper, as well as outlying islands and the navy for the Marine Corps, the official said Taiwan is to receive 500 Stinger missiles and 178 launchers from the US by the end of the year, the first batch under a planned two-stage acquisition totaling 2,621 missiles and 763 launchers, a defense official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The portable missiles would play a vital role in the nation’s air defense capabilities, the source said. The army plans to deploy 2,235 missiles and 657 launchers to defend Taiwan proper and outlying islands, they said, citing military documents. The navy is allotted 295 missiles and 85 launchers to arm the Marine Corps and some surface vessels that lack air defense
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