Sony had notified the market about an upcoming change in their TV strategy and the new strategy has now been announced. Sony plans to divide their TV division into three, as Sony expects to lose 1.2 billion USD this year.

Sony to split TV division into three
The change has already been executed and Sony has divided their TV division into three; 1. LCD-TVs, 2. Outsourcing, and 3. Next-generation TVs.

The first division will be focusing on improving Sony’s LCD-TV through internal design and production. The second division will focus on low-cost products made possible by outsourcing. And the last division will be responsible for developing Sony’s future products and display technologies.


Sony is planning focus on product differentiation and unique products

Sony also says that they plan to increase product differentiation “with unique technologies”. The report indicates that Sony will focus on low-end TVs in new markets and instead focus on higher-end TV in developed markets. Sony talks about the ability to “deploy unique technology such as super-resolution high image quality engines and accelerate the development of a next generation TV” and “Increasing added value of TV by providing consumers with an integrated user experience across multiple devices and network services”.

Sony has been hit hard be the economic slowdown and external events such as the floods in Thailand and the PlayStation network hacking incident. Therefore Sony expects to lose 1.2 billion USD this year. Sony had hoped to capture 20 % of the global TV market by selling 40 million TVs in 2011 but the estimate has now been cut in half to 20 million TVs. Sony is amongst the group of TV manufacturers that struggle to become profitable. Earlier this week it was also reported that Sony plans to quit their LCD partnership with Samsung. Panasonic is also struggling. 

Sony is expected to announce their 2012 TV line-up at CES 2012 in Las Vegas in January 2012.