The company expects to phase out the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT)-based products gradually over the next two years and replace them with flat screen television sets.

In an interview with The Financial Express here on Monday before the launch of its new flat TV range--Wega, Sony India general manager--marketing division Takashi Itagaki said: ``This will be the first and perhaps last year when we will have a products straddling various segments of the market.''

Sony currently has three range of television products addressing a wide spectrum of the market--the conventional television with Trinitron CPT in the mid-top end, Kirara Basso range for the top-to-premium segment and Wega for the premium segment.

Itagaki explained that the products transition here was part of the worldwide strategy adoptedby the Japanese company to focus on the superior flat screen CTVs. In its home country, 90 per cent of all Sony televisions sold belong to the Wega family. In the US, the percentage is a high 70 per cent.

He added that Sony Corporation intended to discontinue production of the CRTs used in the conventional CTVs and Kirara Basso range to focus on the flat display (FD) Trinitron for Wega and high definition TVs. The new product strategy would enable the company to bring down manufacturing cost, he added.

The cost of manufacturing FD Trinitron is about 20 per cent more than that for making CRT. A single product facility, instead of a mixed products facility, would give the company better economies of scale and bring down the cost of the flat TV to the level of a conventional CRT-based product, Itagaki said.

Thus the Wega sets are priced at 15-20 per cent premium to the Kirara Basso range. For instance, the 21-inch Wega is priced at Rs 24,497 as against Rs 21,990 for a similar model of the Kirara BassoRange. Similarly, the 25-inch Wega is priced at Rs 42,990 as against Rs 34,990 for a Kirara Basso and a 29-inch model of Wega comes with a price tag of Rs 56,490 while the Kirara Basso model is sold for Rs 45,990.

The product strategy for India is slightly different as the market for the mid-segment products was very large and unsaturated. In contrast, in the more developed markets, consumers are replacing their old models with flat TVs.

Sony India, nevertheless, expects the demand for the flat screen TVs to grow by leaps and bounds over the next two-three years. ``This year, Wega would account for 25 per cent of all TVs sold by the company.'' Sony expects to sell about 50,000 units of the Wega range by March 2000.

The company has pegged its target sales of all CTV models for the fiscal year 1999 at teo lakh units. About 50 per cent of the sales would be generated by the conventional models and the balance 25 per cent by the Kirara Basso range.

Sony India had launched two models of the Wega in the25-inch and 29-inch segment last month. On Monday, it expanded the range to include the popular 21-inch set. The range will be further expanded by end-1999 early-2000 to include models with 14- and 34-inch screens.

Itagaki claimed that the response to Wega has been tremendous and the company was having a tough time meeting the demand from 25,000 CTV sets a month facility. The company has been implementing some changes its production to make more Wega models. ``We expect to sell about 5,000 sets of Wega a month, including about 500 sets of the large screen size.''

Meanwhile, Sony is planning to expand its range of audio products to bring in the systems with video-CD player in July. In addition, the company plans to launch its digital versatile disk (DVD) player to retail at Rs 30,000-35,000 and expand the range of radio-cassette and walkmans.