Japanese electronics giant Sony hopes to become the biggest player in the Chinese high-end TV market by expanding production and launching new products.

Tadanobu Matsushima, president of the consumer sales and marketing unit with Sony China, said his company wants to become number one in the "high-end" segment in the world's biggest TV market.

"The market is changing very rapidly and we will continue to launch products to meet new demands," said Matsushima.

The Japanese firm has decided to expand production at SSV Shanghai Suoguang Visual Products Co Ltd. Although Sony has presence in all segments from products as cheap as 2,000 yuan (US$250) to luxurious models sold at over 40,000 yuan (US$4,800), it only produces low-end products in China and high-end ones are imported.

According to Tomihiro Kasuya, SSV Suoguang's president, a joint venture with the Chinese electronics company SVA, his company produced 400,000 TV sets last year and all of them were traditional cathode ray tube sets.

After the expansion, SSV Suoguang's capacity will reach 1 million units next year and the product range will cover all series of products like high-end plasma display panel (PDP) TVs, liquefied crystal display (LCD) TVs, and micro-device projection (MDPJ)sets. The products will go toward supplying the Chinese market.

Besides the introduction of high-end TV sets at SSV Suoguang, Sony will release 15 new models by the end of this year and high-end products will be top priorities.

Matsushima believes the demand from Chinese customers for large- and wide-screen TVs and the need for high definition models with the country's push for digital TV programmes will stimulate the high-end demand.

It is said that 35 percent of TV sets sold this year will be large-screen models and the proportion of 16:9 wide-screen TV sets will rise from last year's 14 percent to 26 percent. MDPJ TV sets, or LCD projection TV sets, will play a big part in Sony's ambition.

Noriaki Negishi, general manager of the East Asian area with Sony's TV Group, said that out of 100 TV sets sold in China during April to July, only 22 were projection TV models, but the ratio in the United States was 43 percent and the sales value of MDPJ TV sets already reached one-fourth of the total projected TV sales. That means there is huge potential in the Chinese market for such models.

"Now is the best timing to launch our top products," he said.

(China Daily November 15, 2004)