Sony Camcorder Sales Less Than Expected in Fiscal Year 2002

by News Editor
Published on Apr 23, 2003 12:00 AM



According to a Dow Jones story, the Sony Corporation reported that in the fiscal year ending March 31st, Sony's camcorder sales rose 6.5% to 5.75 million units, however, that fell short of their expectation of 5.9 million units.

The drop in sales could likely be attributed to the fierce competition in the MiniDV sector, where Canon showed strong growth in sales of their low end ZR camcorder line during the 2002 holiday season.

Total operating profit rose 38% in the fiscal year to 185.44 billion Yen. However this fell far short of estimates around 250-290 billion Yen according to the company. Despite this growth, the company posted a 1.4% drop in revenue to 7.474 trillion Yen.

An AP article reported that Sony Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei said that the company plans to invest $4 billion in chips for consumer electronics products such as camcorders, digital cameras, and computers, where the company Sony predicts there will be sales growth.