COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL: Sony says it made mistakes in TV unit
Financial Times UK, London Ed2, Sec. COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL, p 30 (10-29-2007)
By MARIKO SANCHANTA

Sony's chief financial officer has admitted mistakes were made in its key television division, which analysts fear could be further hit if US consumers buy fewer large TVs during the end-of-year shopping season.

The admission comes as Sony battles with Samsung and Sharp for supremacy in the flat-panel TV market.

Analysts and competitors say US sales of larger liquid crystal display TVs in the US could slow in the coming months as a result of the global credit squeeze.

Highlighting the worsening US trading conditions, Mikio Katayama, president of Sharp, the world's third-leading LCD TV maker, said last week: "Sales of 40in or larger products have nosedived since July in the US".

"Competition has been very severe and more severe price competition could come," said Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's CFO, in an interview with the Financial Times.

"Our line-up of LCD TVs in the spring was not so competitive and we did not have sufficient product lines of full high-definition TVs."

Sony's television division lost Y21bn (Dollars 184m) from July to the end of September, more than double the loss in the same period last year. The next few months in the US are crucial as TV sales are the biggest single contributor to Sony's revenues, according to Macquarie Securities.

Poor performance at Sony's TV and games divisions could wipe out any benefits from attempts to restructure the company by Sir Howard Stringer, Sony's chief executive.

However, Sony is on track to achieve a 5 per cent operating margin in the year ending March 2008, a target that was established by Sir Howard. Mr Oneda also said that Sony missed the mark with its rear-projection TVs, a cheaper alternative to plasma and LCD sets, in the US.

"In the US, the rear projection TV share was 28-30 per cent, and last year it was less than 20 per cent because of a (pricing) attack from plasma TVs," he said.

"The price reduction was so drastic that we couldn't anticipate it. We lost big market share and the market is shrinking . . . and we started to lose money very quickly."

Sony is trying to boost sales of its PlayStation 3 games console in the last three months of the year by launching a new model and cutting prices of others. "Our target is still 11m (PS3 sales by March 2008) but we have to be cautious about it," said Mr Oneda.

By shrinking the powerful "Cell" chip - the brains behind the PS3 and its most expensive component - and reducing the size of the graphics chip, Mr Oneda said Sony should be able to cut production costs for the PS3 by one-third next year.

Sony says its lossmaking games division should be profitable again by the start of the new financial year in April.

www.ft.com/it

  


Language:English
Word Count:525
ISSN:
Accession Number (Internal - Global):20071029670.7.1_8432001c25557cef - 20071029L230.009


索尼首席财务长官已经承认在关键的电视领域犯下了错误，分析家认为如果年末商战美国购买大尺寸电视减少该部门还将受到更沉重的打击
索尼目前正在和三星，夏普争夺平板电视市场的霸主
分析家和竞争对手都认为，美国大尺寸液晶电视的销售速度在近几个月里将会放缓，原因是全球贷款紧缩。
夏普总裁Mikio Katayama上周表示，在美国七月以来，40寸及更大尺寸的产品销售量暴跌
索尼CFO在接受FT采访时说“竞争将更加严峻，更激烈的价格战即将到来。在春天，我们的液晶电视产品阵容不够具有竞争力，而且我们的全高清电视的生产线不够充足”
7月到9月底，索尼的电视部门亏损了210亿日元（1.84亿美元）。是去年同部门亏损的两倍。根据Macquarie Securities的分析，索尼的电视销售额是索尼全公司销售额的最大支柱，因此对于之后几个月在美国的销售将是最为至关重要的。
索尼在电视和游戏领域的差劲表现可能使斯金格上台以后的重组工作所带来的好处全部废掉
尽管这样，索尼仍在朝着斯金格设定的年利润5%的目标前进。索尼财务总监Mr Oneda 同时表示，索尼最大的失误是背投电视这一市场，背投在美国市场作为等离子和液晶的一种更便宜的替代品
“在美国，过去背投的市场份额是28—30%，去年由于受到等离子降价的影响，背投的份额猛跌到20%以下。”他说
“降价的速度太快，我们无法预计，我们失去了大量的市场份额，市场规模也在缩水，然后我们亏钱就亏得很快了”
通过发布新型号和降价，今年近三个月来索尼正在试图井喷PS3。“我们的目标仍是一千一百万台（到2008年3月）但是我们对此仍持谨慎”Mr Oneda说
通过对cell芯片的减肥，和减少图形芯片尺寸，Mr Oneda说索尼将减少近3分之1的成本下一年
索尼认为他们的亏损专业户游戏部门将在明年4月新财年开始时盈利

索尼认为他们的亏损专业户游戏部门将在明年4月新财年开始时盈利

期待下

一千一百万 ，吹牛吹大了。 以为自己是 wii啊。 年底大战，目前看在北美输定了。

看来高清的普及速度也不怎么样嘛...........

老亏损不是办法啊

SONY还会搞激光光源的SXRD背投吗？

明年4月新财年开始时盈利

新大作？还是ffB？

ps3上面什么时候游戏多起来？

圣诞要靠BD大片而非BD游戏争取胜利
毕竟游戏数量不是一朝一夕就能提上去的

到明年3月1100万，也就是每个月要1百万台PS3......

目前北美6万，日本2万

期待1500%井喷

到圣诞准备支持sony一下！加油！

多出点游戏

楼主是SVIDEO的马甲吗?

出游戏　　出游戏　

人要倒起霉来，喝凉水都塞牙，放个P都砸脚后跟。