Sony India To Make Existing Audio Range MP3-Compatible

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Sony India Pvt Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corp of Japan, is gearing up to displace Philips India Ltd, as the leader in the audio segment in India. Sony India has decided to increase the production of audio products in its Haryana factory by an additional 50,000 units during the current fiscal.

Reacting to a sustained campaign made by Philips urging customers of hi-fi audio sets to spurn anything that doesn’t play MP3, Sony India has now sought help from its parent’s product design lab in Tokyo to make its existing audio range in India MP3 compatible.

Speaking to FE, Sony India’s managing director Mr Teruo Ishii said that the company has already sounded its dealers and sub-dealers to aim at a marketshare of 60 per cent in the audio segment by the end of the current fiscal.

“The product design lab in Tokyo has already begun supplying us the critical components to make our existing audio products MP3 compatible. In effect, it will mean a 30 per cent increase in sound quality without compromising on price,” Mr Ishii said.

According to Mr Prem Nair, deputy director of Sony India, it was a conscious effort on Sony’s part to keep MP3 away from its music systems. “We are already into the business of music through our subsidiary and we have the MP3 software with us. It isn’t difficult to bundle the two together. Since, Philips is making a sustained campaign targeting us, we have now decided to enter the MP3 business in a big way,” Mr Nair added.

Sony India currently has a 40 per cent marketshare in the mini hi-fi and an overall 20 per cent in the audio segment. The company’s Dharuhera plant in Haryana has an installed production capacity of two lakh audio units a year. The CTV manufacturing unit in the same plant has an installed capacity of three lakh units a year, where Sony makes its Wega brand of CTVs.

As part of Sony Corp’s global strategy, Sony India has stopped production of the conventional curved screen TVs in the plant.

The company is currently launching the “X-treme series” in the hi-fi audio segment through Sony Vision - its branded exhibition format. Beginning with Kolkata, Sony plans to organise 17 such exhibitions across the country by end-March 2003. The exhibitions will showcase all Sony products including the imported cameras, DVD players, camcorders and home-theatre series.