Sony's Middle East sales increase 30% to $1.3b

Dubai: Sony has seen 30 per cent regional growth in sales since last year with the latest figures reaching $1.3 billion, officials said.

Osama Miura, the regional managing director of Sony, told Gulf News that the company's worldwide sales hit $84.5 billion in the financial year, with a net proft of $3.5 billion.

With regional market share at 35-40 per cent, most of the company's sales came from LCD televisions. The digital imaging line including Handycam camcorders and Cybershot cameras ranked second, while the notebook line Vaio and gaming console Playstation 3 came next.

"Dubai is the most important city for us as it is a showcase for Sony," Miura said.

He said Sony's presence in the city had an impact on worldwide markets due to the high traffic of tourist."

Local consumer demand is shifting towards high-end products, according to him. "We are bringing in more high-range products for this market, as we see more demand for them."

A development in the recording format is also being seen. "In the past two-three years, cameras moved from tape-based to DVD-based and now the move is towards memory cards and hard drive-based devices," Miura said.