Friday, March 4, 2011

India to figure among Sony’s top 5 markets

India to figure among Sony’s top 5 markets ; Japan’s Sony Corp. expects India to become one of its top five markets by sales in the next two years, said chairman and chief executive officer Howard Stringer.

“India is a key market and our sales here have been expanding year-on-year,” Stringer said in Mumbai on Friday. “India will eclipse other nations to be one of the top five regions for us by sales shortly.”

Masaru Tamagawa, managing director of Sony India Pvt. Ltd, said the local arm registered a 50% increase in sales in the previous fiscal year and expects to maintain the growth rate in the next two years. Sony’s India sales currently account for about 3-5% of its global revenue. Stringer was visiting the city to inaugurate a Sony centre that will develop three-dimensional (3D) and high-definition (HD) technologies.

Sony expects sales and operating revenue of 7,200 billion yen in the year to 31 March, according to an investor presentation on the company’s website.

Sony sees a significant portion of the incremental demand in India coming from the products and services it offers on the 3D platform, in line with its global strategy.

Tamagawa said Sony expects 30% of its total revenue in India to come from the sale of 3D-related products. Since the company introduced the first set of 3D televisions last year, it has captured a 60% market share in the segment, he said.

Prakashranjan Mishra, a partner at consulting firm Ernst and Young, heading the retail and consumer durables practice, said he would be surprised if 3D could drive Sony’s sales in India as it would potentially be targeted at premium customers.

But he added that with India’s consumer durables market poised to grow at around 15% over the next two-three years, Sony should be able to do well in the country.

“They have done a good job over the last couple of years in expanding their product portfolio in India with offerings at lower price points,” Mishra said. “Sony has always been an aspirational brand and they would be able to leverage it now.”

Sony faces competition from brands such as LG, Samsung and Apple, which sells the iPod media device and MacBook computers.

The inauguration of the Sony centre on the campus of Whistling Woods International, the film and television institute promoted by movie producer and director Subhash Ghai, is an effort towards making the 3D concept popular in India. The centre is the third of its kind for Sony after the US and the UK.

American director James Cameron’s movie Avatar that released in several languages in India in 2009 gave a thrust to the 3D concept in the country, after which electronics companies began introducing 3D television sets.

Stringer said Indian films, especially Mumbai’s Hindi movie industry, the world’s largest by the number of movies produced in a year, has the scale, size and colour to be adapted to 3D and made acceptable worldwide.

The 69-year-old Welsh-born head of Sony hoped that after producing 40 3D films in Hollywood, Sony could soon produce its first 3D blockbuster in India.

In February, The Wall Street Journal newspaper, with which Mint has a content partnership, cited Tamagawa as saying Sony expected sales of its flat-panel televisions to grow by 70% in the next fiscal year to an estimated 1.5 million units in India.

The jump in sales would allow the company to maintain its market share in the country between 33% and 35%, Tamagawa had said.

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