Komiyama Cites Three Major Growth Areas

NEW YORK— Sony Electronics president/COO Dick Komiyama, commented that TV-displays, the Vaio PC line and digital cameras are three major areas of growth for the company.

TV-display sales will be one of the company's biggest growth contributors this year, with dollar sales of Sony displays targeted to grow at a high-single-digit rate. Sales of all Sony display technologies will rise, including Sony CRT sales, despite a declining CRT market. "The decline of CRT is less in the U.S. than in the rest of the world," he noted.

Even though Komiyama expects his CRT-TV sales to rise in dollars, his CRT sales will account for a shrinking share of display dollar sales in the current fiscal year because of faster growth in flat-display technologies. In dollars, CRT's share of display sales will fall to 70 percent in the current fiscal year from the previous year's 90 percent "We are one of the only companies with every [display] technology available for consumers," including LCD, launched in the spring to "good reaction," he added.

Although Vaio sales suffered a recent slowdown "for many reasons," Komiyama said, the brand has been repositioned and is "already experiencing stronger growth" compared to the previous fiscal year, he said.

He also attributed expected Vaio growth to a recent reorganization and a planned increase in direct-to-consumer sales of Vaio PCs and PC accessories. In April, Komiyama created the Vaio America business unit to unify responsibility for product and software development, engineering, manufacturing, marketing and sales. Many of these functions were previously separated and "not necessarily well-coordinated," he said. With "one leader" for Vaio, Sony can make speedier decisions in a fast-moving market and add "uniqueness," he continued.

Digital still cameras, a third key growth area in the United States, is a "major contributor to Sony overall," because the company manufactures about 65 percent of the CCD image sensors used in cameras worldwide, he noted.