Sony Stands By MicroMV, CamInfo Makes Partial Retraction

by News Editor
Published on Oct 28, 2003 12:00 AM



In direct response to CamcorderInfo.com's October 20th story titled ''Sony Abandons Failed MicroMV format, Cuts Jobs'' Sony has stated their commitment to the MicroMV camcorder format. CamcorderInfo.com is also offering a partial retraction to the story. The story attributed the Japanese Newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun as reporting that Sony was abandoning the MicroMV format. Upon further investigation, CamcorderInfo.com has been unable to confirm that the Newspaper reported such information, it appears that our source regarding the newspaper was incorrect, and that the information was never reported in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. However, industry experts still believe that the MicroMV format has a short life with Sony.

''Sony doesn't comment on future product plans. The DCR-IP1 will be available at the beginning of November which confirms Sony's current support of the format.'' said Sony spokesperson Rosemary Flynn regarding their commitment to MicroMV.

CamcorderInfo.com regrets the error. On October 20th CamcorderInfo.com placed multiple calls to Sony trying to get a comment on the story however all we got were no comment responses. According to Flynn, Sony has looked into the matter and says that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun never reported that Sony was abandoning the MicroMV format.

Despite our retracting the attribution of the abandonment comment to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, it seems like the MicroMV format still has a very short life. After hearing news of CamcorderInfo.com's retraction, a source close to Sony questioned their long term commitment to the format. In our original story an industry analyst stated ''MicroMV sells a fraction of what MiniDV does in the US. I am not surprised that Sony is abandoning the format.'' It is well known in the industry that the MicroMV format has not been widely adopted by US consumers. The format has also been highly criticized by reviewers including this publication.

The October 20th story did report that Sony would be cutting jobs, and an October 28th press release regarding structural and strategy reforms titled ''Transformation 60'' from Sony states that they will be cutting ''about 20,000 [jobs] over a 3 year period.'' Sony was unable to comment on how the job cuts will affect the camcorder division, however the Transformation 60 press release stated the success of the digital imaging division, saying the company will be ''Building on Sony's strength in key devices to confirm Sony's leading position in the digital imaging field through products such as Camcorders and Digital Still Cameras.''