Sony maintains rosy outlook until yearend

Despite the conservative projections of some companies due to the current global economic slowdown, Sony Philippines is still optimistic that their sales will continue to soar especially during the last periods of this year.

“So far sales is good for us this year and we are still exactly on target. From September to last October we had good sales and we expect that November to December will increase around 50 percent more as it usually does in previous years,” said Sony Philippines president and managing director Toshiya Kagita in an interview during the opening of the Sony Expo 2008 at the SM City Cebu.

Kagita said that despite their optimism, they are still preparing for the worst case scenario as markets are slowly feeling the negative impacts of the looming financial crisis.

“We are now trying to minimize our expenses and improve our efficiency level but we maintained the number of our workforce, no lay-offs or retrenchments so far,” said Kagita.

He said that their product segments have also increased market share such as their high-end Sony Vaio notebooks which increased to 50 percent from last year, more than that of the market average.

“Vaio is a newcomer in the industry but we keep on increasing its market presence through our outlets and concept shops and so far its growth continues,” he said.

The Sony Expo held here in Cebu was the first leg of the various consumer expos in store for its client base nationwide.

It aims to increase the sales of various segments of Sony as well as increase the awareness of the market with its latest breakthroughs and products.

Takashi Kozu, Sony Philippines, Inc. vice president for marketing explained that the mission of their expo is to showcase the latest products of Sony and uphold the brand’s position as the consumers’ lifestyle choice.

“In this digital era, it’s harder to make a differentiation in terms of products and technology but Sony’s spirit and DNA is able to produce world breakthrough technologies because Sony kept tackling new technologies which nobody in the industry could achieve,” he said.

Kozu said that aside from showcasing the wide range of Sony products, the Sony Expo 2008 also highlights the eight recent breakthroughs of Sony.

Among these breakthroughs include the Bravia Z450, the world’s first motionflow 240Hz LCD TV that enables the display of fast moving images with total precision and smoothness.

They also introduced the world’s first noise cancelling notebook computer under the Vaio T series bundled with its noise cancelling headphones and portable music player under its Walkman segment that generates high-quality audio performance.

Sony also showcased the world’s first RGB LED backlight LCD TV under its Bravia X450 which brings warm hues of the images in the screen.

Sony Expo 2008 also showcased the world’s first slimmest camera with optical image stabilizer under its Cyber-shot T77 as well as the world’s first smallest, lightest and slimmest Full HD Camcorder under its TG1 Handycam as well as its world’s first 24.6 megapixels full frame Alpha digital SLR camera.

Kozu said that Cebu is an important market for Sony so they decided to start their first expo in the area especially that their market share here has been increasing.

He said that despite the “wait and see” attitude of most multinational companies, Sony remains bullish of their domestic operations here in the Philippines.

“We are still very optimistic of the market because we see that there is still a big potential for us to grow. —Rhia de Pablo