Sony half denies it&#39;s getting out of plasma TVs
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A REPORT IN the Japan Times which suggested that Sony is reducing its investment in plasma TVs and could exit it completely has been denied.
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The electronics giant finally cuts its price, despite word to the contrary last week.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony's core electronics business more than doubled profits in the last quarter of 2006, but failed to offset price cuts to itsÂ PlayStation 3 game console, leading to an overall profit decline of just over 5 percent, the company said Tuesday. The company said sales and operating revenue increased 9.8 percent to Â¥2.6 trillion ($21.4 billion) while net profit fell 5.3 percent to Â¥159.9 billion. Sony Computer Entertainment, the division responsible for its PlayStation gaming consoles, was the only one of Sony's main business units that registered a loss in the quarter. It lost Â¥54.2 billion primarily due to the retail price of the more expensive of the two consoles being reduced from a planned Â¥62,790 to Â¥49,980 in Japan. The cut was made, Sony said, due to negative feedback from consumers. Sony's electronics business saw profits more than double to Â¥177.4 billion on 16.9 percent higher sales of Â¥1.9 trillion, the company said. The unit had a generally positive quarter with sales of Bravia LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions and Cybershot digital still cameras increasing. Europe saw the biggest percentage sales jump, up 21 percent, thanks to better LCD TV and Vaio PC sales, while tough competition in the U.S. TV market meant sales there increased by just 3 percent. Sony Pictures returned to profitability as sales there jumped 47 percent, but sales in the financial services division fell 9 percent. Underlining the generally positive results, Sony revised its full-year profit forecast upward for the year to the end of March. It now expects to record a net profit of Â¥110 billion for the year, up from its previous forecast of Â¥80 billion, although still lower than the Â¥124 billion it reported last year. The sales forecast was left unchanged. Sony's mid-term business plan has targeted a profit margin of 5 percent for the coming fiscal year. Sony's electronics business is already meeting its part of the target and will continue to do so next year however the games unit needs to improve, Sony's chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said at a Tokyo news conference on Tuesday. He expects to bring the company's games unit closer to break-even in the second half, he said. Sony will target cost savings in the PlayStation 3 by introducing more advanced chips and consolidating components to reduce the overall number of parts, he said. The company is already on the way to the first of these targets, with the recent start of production of a new version of the Cell processor built with a 65-nanometer production process. The chip in current consoles is built using a 90-nanometer process and the upcoming switch will mean a chip that is 40 percent smaller. Costs will fall in line with the size reduction, Sony said. It did not say when the new chip will appear in consoles. Sony wouldn't provide anyÂ PlayStation 3 shipment estimatesÂ for the coming financial year but said it remains confident it will ship 6 million consoles up to March. It also revised upwards its PlayStation 2 shipment forecast from 11 million units to 13 million units. Sony counts shipments as finished consoles leaving its factory for Sony warehouses and distributors. Oneda ruled out the possibility of further price cuts in the near future, but hinted that this could happen in two or three years' time. Â
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InfoWorld - Sony&#39;s core electronics business more than doubled profits in the last quarter of 2006, but failed to offset price cuts to its&#160;PlayStation 3 game console, leading to an overall profit decline of just over 5 percent, the company said Tuesday.
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Bruce Goodman is shopping for a new plasma television. He&#39;s been doing that for a while -- about six months. &quot;It&#39;s much more work than it ought to be,&quot; he said of his research.
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Sony Corp.&#39;s recent decision to move away from plasma TV operations is a reflection of how harsh the market for flat-panel TVs has become.
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Half the people in a recent survey donât know that analog over-the-air television will be cut off in 2009.
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Sony Corp. is looking at ways to improve its chip operations but has reached no decision on whether to sell it, the company said Tuesday, denying Japanese media reports that it has struck a deal with Toshiba.
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Sony Corp said on Thursday it would stop  making rear-projection televisions, becoming the latest company  to distance itself from a technology once seen as a promising  rival of LCD and plasma displays in the flat-TV market.
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Sony is studying scaling down its plasma TV business and may withdraw from it completely by the end of next year, industry sources said Monday.
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LONDON - After a year of negotiations two of the world&#39;s giants of consumer electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp.
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Q: I'm thinking of getting a plasma TV, but I've heard the image can "burn" into the screen. Is this something I need to be concerned about?
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com December 22, 2004, 1:59 PM PT. Sony Electronics issued a statement Wednesday refuting reports that it&#39;s getting out of the plasma TV business.
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HDTV manufacturers are trying to make the task of buying an HDTV set much more difficult than just choosing between LCD and plasma, 42 inches or 46 inches.
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LEIPZIG, Germany  - While Sony  battles  with Microsoft  over which of their next-generation  video game consoles will dominate, its seven-year-old  PlayStation 2 still has a lot of life in it.
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TOKYO  - Sony Corp. plans to withdraw from the plasma television business as early as the first half of 2005, a news report said.
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Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe&#39;s largest maker of televisions, raised 550 million euros ($729 million) by selling more than half of its stake in Atos Origin SA, France&#39;s No.