Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp is increasing outsourcing of television manufacturing to contract makers, primarily its Taiwanese partners, during this fiscal year to boost its market share, a high-ranking executive said yesterday in Taipei.
Half of Sony’s TVs would be produced by its manufacturing partners during the fiscal year ending March 31 of next year, Toshiro Kawata, general manager of Sony’s TV division, told reporters.
He did not give a comparative figure. However, Taipei-based research firm WitsView, an LCD research arm of TrendForce Corp (集邦), estimated that Sony only outsourced 11 percent of its total shipments to Taiwanese firms, in particular to Wistron Corp (緯創).
“Taiwanese manufacturers were Sony’s good partners last year, and are this year as well,” Kawata said.
Sony is maintaining its target of shipping 25 million LCD TVs this year, of which 10 percent would be 3D TVs, Kawata said.
LED TVs would account for 30 percent, he added.
This year, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing service provider, would become Sony’s biggest local partner after the Tucheng (土城), Taipei County-based company acquired a second TV factory, located in Slovakia, from Sony in March, according to WitsView.
“Sony will be able to gain a bigger share of emerging markets by farming out production of entry-level TV sets to Taiwanese firms, which are good at cost control,” said Locke Chang (張小彪), head of WitsView.
“Increasing outsourcing is also a policy of Sony as it looks to expand its affordable product portfolio to stave off competition from South Korean TV makers Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics,” Chang said.
This year, Sony added Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s biggest contract notebook computer maker, to its manufacturing partner list, Chang said. Compal is diversifying its product lineup to non-PC areas.
When asked whether the rising yen against the US dollar would put pressure on Sony to accelerate outsourcing orders, Kawata said “the yen is not the only factor affecting [the company’s outsourcing policy].”
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