Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp.'s (SNE) Chief Executive Officer reportedly said Thursday that he is pinning hopes on three-dimensional televisions or 3D TV, to boost its dwindling electronics sales. The company last week said it expects to produce revenues of over one trillion yen or about $11 billion in fiscal 2013 from 3-D related products, including televisions, disk players and game consoles. The 3D technology will also feature in the Playstation, laptops and the Blu-ray DVD player.
Four years after Sony released the A-series rear projection televisions, KDS-50A2500, that featured the SXRD technology, unleashing the power and impact of cinema, Sony now plans to bring 3D technology to the home consumer market globally by the end of 2010. With the electronics industry looking for the next technology to boost sales, Hyundai in the Japanese market and Panasonic have also flagged up plans for products.
The company said last week that it is now positioned to launch a succession of competitive products from the end of this calendar year and into 2010. Sony also said that it targets to regain the leading market position in LCD TV business, and to return to profitability in fiscal 2011, while also achieving a 20% worldwide market share on a unit basis in fiscal 2013.
Sony will be launching its new Bravia LCD TV next year, which will be fully 3D capable and will make a market entry when BSkyB launches its 3D Channel on Sky TV. Meanwhile, Virgin Media could possibly beat rival BskyB and make 3D TV available on demand. The 3D technology will let viewers choose between 2D and 3D on their TVs by wearing special glasses.
Sony expects 3D TV sales to account for up to 50% of the TV sales in the next three years. Last year, the company lost about $1 billion in TV sales. Sony's TV business has reported six consecutive years of losses, and has been struggling with intense competition from non Japanese firms like Samsung and LG. Its sales have also continued to be negatively impacted by the ever strengthening Yen.
With the launch of 3D TV, Sony will have added yet another milestone in television technology. With the KV-1310 in 1968, the first in Sony's exclusive line of Trinitron color televisions, the world saw a model offered around twice the brightness of televisions using conventional shadow-mask tubes.
In 2002 also, Sony's KLV-17HR1 was the first-generation liquid crystal television based on WEGA signal processing technology, that converted and reproduced NTSC signals while retaining advanced picture quality. Later, the A-series rear projection televisions that produced smooth, cinematic visual texture and rich colors was released in September 2005 in the U.S.
In October, Sony reported a loss for the second quarter compared to a profit last year, reflecting 20% lower sales, losses of affiliated companies and higher restructuring charges. Net loss was 26.31 billion yen or US$292 million, compared to net income of 20.82 billion yen in the previous year. Loss per share was 26.22 yen or US$0.29, in comparison with earnings of 19.83 yen per share in the prior year.
Quarterly sales and operating revenue dropped 19.8% to 1.66 trillion yen from 2.07 trillion yen last year, due to factors including slowdown of global economy and the appreciation of the yen. However, based on the better-than-expected second-quarter results exceeded expectations, Sony revised its fiscal 2010 forecast and now expects lower loss for the year than projected earlier.
SNE closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $27.46, up $0.84 or 3.16% on a volume of 0.69 million shares, lower than the three-month average volume of 1.01 million shares.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.