Dubai: Sony Gulf is expecting sales in its consumer segment to grow 30 per cent next year in the region, a company official said.
In its laptop series, the company launched a range of new models at Gitex, including one of the lightest in the above 10-inch range. The company sold 150,000 laptops in the region last year, Dharmendra Lalai, general manager of IT and B2B marketing at Sony Gulf said.
The increase in sales will result from the company's entry into the mid-price Dh3,000 to Dh4,500 segment. "That segment has led to huge growth, not just for the industry but for us, even greater than the industry growth," Lalai said.
Additionally, the company entered the netbook market, laptops meant mainly for information access and had recently seen its impact on sales.
In recent months, Lalai said that their sales have grown or flattened out. "We never really saw a decline, even in the UAE where we suffered the worst in the region." He said that the lack of a large tourist population that usually contributes to sales was the reason the UAE was most affected.
"Every other country is growing and contributing to the expected growth. The rest of the Middle East was more resilient and they did not see the external environment impacting them so much," he said.
The growth rate for the industry has slowed to the lower two digits, and in some quarters even single digit, he said quoting an industry report.
"For us, the growth rates have been as high as 30 per cent in the last quarters," he said.
When asked if the company would consider new markets such Iran and Iraq, he said no such plans were in the pipeline. "We are extremely careful of where we go and what kind of service levels we can provide to the customers. We abstain from the markets where we can't provide the level of service that our customers have come to expect from us," he said. It recently added another service centre in the UAE.
The company says its bundle offers during Gitex and the return in consumer confidence has been positively affecting sales. In unit sales, it is expecting 50 per cent growth from Gitex this year, compared to that of the last yea. "As of the fourth day, we are pretty much on track," he said.
"Consumers might delay their purchases or they might not buy a very high-end product, but IT and consumer electronics has become a necessity which people can choose to delay only for a little while," Lalai said.
The umbrella company Sony that includes Sony Ericsson and Broadcast has seen a single digit growth over last year in the Middle East and Africa region.
