Taipei, April 7 (CNA) With unprecedented personnel changes and atotal organizational reform, Sony Corp. aims to emerge from a slumpand regain dominance in the electronics, entertainment and mobilefields, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi said at a press conference Friday in Taipei.
Sony last year named American Howard Stringer as its chairman, anew development in Japanese conglomerates, and decided to re-focus onthree "core positions" in trying to build itself once again into adominant global leader, Chubachi said prior to the "2006 Sony Fair"exhibition.
"We vowed to provide products from a customer standpoint, tomaintain Sony's advantage in technology and to focus on the'frontline operation' -- given that Sony has always been amanufacturing company, " said Chubachi, who started at the company asan engineer in 1977 and became president in June 2005.
Combining Stringer's expertise in business operation andChubachi's technology background, Sony has been doing well with itsBravia televisions, digital cameras and camcorders since last yearafter losing the MP3 battle to Apple's iPod.
Looking ahead, Sony plans to develop Asian "localized markets"under the globalization theme, Chubachi said. It has set up aResearch and Development (R&D) Center in Taiwan and will probablyincrease procurement from Taiwan's LCD panel manufacturers.
"Taiwan is an important market and development base for Sony.Hopefully, with Taiwan's technology and manufacturing expertise, Sonycan push forward the local market, " said Sony Taiwan President KenjiSakai.
Sony will release a wide range of new products in the second halfof 2006, including the long-awaited PlayStation 3 and VAIOcomputers, and will keep promoting the new generation "blue-ray DVD"technology, Chubachi said.