SONY EXPECTS TO SHIP 900,000 VAIO PCs IN JAPAN, O/S
TOKYO, Jan 22, 1999 (Asia Pulse via COMTEX) -- Sony Corp. (TSE:6758)
expects to ship a total of 900,000 Vaio personal computers to dealers
at home and abroad in the year ending March, company officials said.
Behind the strong performance is the popularity of the thin notebook
Vaio Note 505 series, which debuted in November 1997.
Domestic shipments reportedly account for most of the volume, industry
sources said. The consumer electronics giant entered the local PC
market in summer 1997 and has already nearly caught up with
fourth-ranked Toshiba Corp. (TSE:6502) and fifth-place Apple Computer
Inc. in terms of shipment volume.
Industrywide, domestic PC shipments are expected to reach 7.2 million
units for fiscal 1998, said the Japan Electric Industry Development
Association.
Sony will release from the end of this month an additional 14 Vaio
notebook and desktop PCs, including six models equipped with high-speed
data transmission capability.
The company targets monthly sales of 43,000 for the new lineup.
"We will bring a new-concept Vaio to the market every three months,"
said Sony executive Kunitake Ando.
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