Betting on the demand for flat panel display televisions, Japanese electronic major Sony plans to shift its focus to Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) televisions and phase out its Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TV business. The company has stopped production of CRT TVs and is exhausting the stock with dealers.
“Last Diwali, we took the decision to stop production of CRT TVs. As Sony is focusing more on LCD screens, it will soon completely exit the CRT segment,” said Masaru Tamagawa, managing director, Sony India. He added: “LCDs accounted for 21 per cent of our television sales in 2008-09, and is expected to touch 57 per cent this fiscal. It would soon completely replace CRT segment.”
The domestic market for LCD is expected to touch 1.5 million units in 2009, against a million units last year.
The company has launched a new range in its Bravia set of LCDs. The company plans to invest Rs 60 crore on marketing the range in the current fiscal. The new range of LCDs is priced between Rs 16,900 and Rs 2,000,000. The company is targeting sales of 450,000 units in the current fiscal, compared with 280,000 last fiscal, a rise of 60 per cent.
Bravia accounts for nearly a third of Sony’s total revenue in the country. With the new range, Sony hopes to increase its market share in the LCD segment to 30 per cent, from 28 per cent now.
