Sony Set To Slash Prices Bravia TVs & Playstation Consoles

By +Audioboxer
in Home Theatre Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted
EXCLUSIVE: In a desperate move to shift stock Sony is set to slash the price of Sony Bravia TV's, Blu ray players and their Sony Playstation consoles according to a senior executive inside a major retail partner of Sony. The move could spark a retail war said one observer.

Known for price gouging, the move comes as Sony struggles up against a surging Samsung and tough competition from both LG and Panasonic, who in past months have started to take market share away from Sony in the digital camera and handycam market as well as the all important TV market.

The news that Sony is set to slash prices has already leaked out to their competitors, with Mark Leathan the marketing manager of Samsung's consumer electronics division confirming that they have also been told that Sony is set to make savage price cuts.

It has also emerged that both Companies will heavily promote HD and Full HD connectivity. With Samsung set to promote Full HD connectivity between their Blu ray players, Samsung phones with DLNA connectivity, home theatre kits, Samsung HD camera's and Samsung TV's spanning LCD, LED and plasma.

The new Samsung Full HD and HD TV's, now include internet connectivity in several of their models as well as widgets TV, and in the future their TV's could include IceTV an electronic program guide that is also capable of delivering movies from the likes of Blockbuster as well as overseas TV programs from a multitude of suppliers.

Leathan said "HD and Full HD is an important part of Samsung's DNA we have HD connectivity between all our devices including mobile phones Blu ray players and our TV's which include technology that senses an HD connection. We are currently talking to IceTV and we will be offering new network content in the future".

"We are aware that Sony is looking to slash prices as we talk to the same retailers however we are not worried as we intend to launch extensive marketing activities going into the peak Xmas New Year period. We also have several new products coming that will excite the market".

Also set to get aggressive running into the peak buying Xmas is LG who according to ChannelNews sources have been buying up TV media opportunities during the past few weeks. Warren Kim the product manager for TV at LG said "I cannot comment on what we are launching but yes, we will be launching new products and yes we have been buying up media running into the peak buying period".

Despite the rumoured price cuts and aggressive marketing from vendors, one Harvey Norman franchisee has warned that discounting is not necessarily a good thing. "There is very little margin in TV's and the last thing we need is less margin. Sony has a problem but discounting is not the answer. I am happy to sell less Bravia TV's or Sony Blu ray players especially if they have a higher yield. The biggest problem for Sony is brand perception.

Where the brand was strong 18 months ago it is not as strong today. Consumers are aware that Sony products are expensive and with some this is not a bad thing, however many people are turning away from the brand because of aggressive marketing by the likes of Samsung and in particular Panasonic".

Earlier this week Sony group sales manager Jeremy Senior was reported to have said "One thing we're very conscious of with Christmas is, it's not just the sell-in to November and lead up to 25 December, but January is also a very strong sales period. We want to make sure that we've got offers for that time of the year".

Source: http://www.smarthouse.com.au/TVs_And_Large...dustry/T9R5R7S5

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

Tech Star

Posted
Posted
Sony...................................paying for a name.

No, not always. They have beautiful reliable tv's, cameras, game consoles, laptops, and a couple of other things.

You may say you are paying for the name, but I have never had an issue with anything Sony and they are always top notch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Ji@nBing

Posted
Posted
No, not always. They have beautiful reliable tv's, cameras, game consoles, laptops, and a couple of other things.

You may say you are paying for the name, but I have never had an issue with anything Sony and they are always top notch.

That's strange, because other than my PS2, I've had nothing but problems with every Sony product I've ever owned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

DaDude

Posted
Posted
That's strange, because other than my PS2, I've had nothing but problems with every Sony product I've ever owned.

That's a first. Sony is the only brand where I've had no issues with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

deuz

Posted
Posted

"Where the brand was strong 18 months ago it is not as strong today. Consumers are aware that Sony products are expensive and with some this is not a bad thing, however many people are turning away from the brand because of aggressive marketing by the likes of Samsung and in particular Panasonic".

the above part was pretty much about samsung giving away a free 22'' tv with a larger tv bought and pana doing a promotion, where a free wii was given with every full hd promotion. At the same time sony only had a giftcard promotion with only limited models but even then the promotion period was very very short. samsung+pana now have a promo with a free camera. Sony has nothing going on now. LG for the past 1/2 year have been advertising hard... no real promotions but advertising alot...

in terms of cameras i guess nikon and canon are eating sony(dslr) alive, then you have canon,nikon, pana, olympus all copmeteing against sony in the smaller sizes..

Also here in pricing, the sony low to mid range was competing with samsungs mid to high range in terms price so they were going downhill anyway...(also if i remember correctly sony did not like their products discounted)

sony is releasing there new line soon, mainly to replace the xbr led(pretty sure), so will have to wait and see how the pricing on that goes.

i also agree that is a big brand perception problem with sony as well

this is an aus article so im replying to it in that context, dont really know whats happening in other countries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Apprentice

Funworld

Posted
Posted

When the competition gets tough it is a norm in the market to reduce prices to make sure they have a certain share of the market.Nothing unusual really...and the buyers market is very bad now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Ironman273

Posted
Posted

Sony hasn't made TVs since the Trinitron tube. They banked on it for way too long (what a surprise coming from Sony) because they thought LCDs wouldn't stick. When they did they had to farm out their flat screen TVs to other manufacturers, mainly Samsung. Now Sony has partnered with Sharp to build flat screens. It will be interesting to see how they're priced next to Sharps, since they will be the same thing. So, basically, ever since Sony flatscreens came out you are basically paying more for the name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

MistaT40

Posted
Posted
No, not always. They have beautiful reliable tv's, cameras, game consoles, laptops, and a couple of other things.

You may say you are paying for the name, but I have never had an issue with anything Sony and they are always top notch.

Same for me. Never had an issue. You might pay more for Sony, but in my books their furnishing, quality, performance and reliability is totally worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

deuz

Posted
Posted

its interesting that everyone assumes that since samsung and sony get the same glass, they are the same.... personally prefer samsung atm but i still find it interesting...

Sony hasn't made TVs since the Trinitron tube. They banked on it for way too long (what a surprise coming from Sony) because they thought LCDs wouldn't stick. When they did they had to farm out their flat screen TVs to other manufacturers, mainly Samsung. Now Sony has partnered with Sharp to build flat screens. It will be interesting to see how they're priced next to Sharps, since they will be the same thing. So, basically, ever since Sony flatscreens came out you are basically paying more for the name.

the joint venture will be starting soon, so hopefully late next year we will see how good the new panels are, but by that time the pana engineers might have some kuro in the 13th gen panels, and oled hopefully will be avaliable in bigger sizes

^if that all happens next year...it'd be pretty awesome..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.