Posted on 08/07/2003 1:11:38 AM PDT by yonif
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Flat-screen television sales are expected to fuel Sony Electronics' U.S. growth this year, but traditional televisions will remain a strong revenue driver, company president Hideki "Dick" Komiyama said on Wednesday.
"This year the driving force is going to be the (television) display business," Komiyama, who is charged with overseeing operations at the $11 billion electronics arm of Japan's Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites)., told a press gathering in New York.
Sony Electronics expects to see revenue for flat-screen TVs, which include high-definition and other digital TV screens, increase to about 30 percent of its total U.S. television sales in the fiscal year ending early in 2004, from about 10 percent a year earlier.
Growth in flat screen televisions was expected to continue in the next year, he added, although he did not quantify the expected rise.
The projection comes after Sony Corp. in July blamed a poor first-quarter performance partly on slack sales of its Trinitron traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions.
Komiyama said CRT television sales in the United States would remain strong at about 70 percent of the total in the current fiscal year. The company remained optimistic about sales of CRT televisions, which on average cost far less than flat-screen models.
The transition to high definition and other advanced video systems has moved somewhat slowly in the United States, where consumers wait for lower prices and broader programming from television networks.
Despite the rosy outlook for flat-screens, Komiyama said Sony would prefer a transition to digital televisions that is "smooth, rather than drastic."
"(That is) because we have a CRT business," he said. "So we wish for a transfer that is reasonable."
High Definition is well defined, although there is two competing formats 1280i and 720p, but all HD compatible equipment should be able to handle both. There are hundreds of transmitting OTA stations out there and there are a half-dozen satelitte channels that broadcast. The only place where a standard is not well defined is in DVDs, where their is a big fight over how to encrypt high-definition movies. But for TV, high-definition is well established and standard technology that is being used extensibely today.
I've been making TV parts since 1968 - even B&W, and I've watched this debacle for years.
Philo Farnsworth must be shaking his head in heaven.........FRegards
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