Despite Setbacks, Sony Is Optimistic About Google TV
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TOKYO -- Sony, the electronics and entertainment giant, acknowledged on Monday that reviews of its Internet-enabled Google TV had been mixed, but the company remained upbeat about its prospects, even as Google asked other television makers to delay new models until the software could be refined.
Several of Sony's rivals, including Toshiba, LG Electronics and Sharp, had been prepared to show off versions of the Google TV at the Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas. But Google has asked those makers to delay their introductions, a sign of the difficulties the company has faced in making inroads into the unfamiliar realm of consumer electronics.
Sony, which developed the Google TV with the Internet search giant, and Intel started selling models in October. Logitech, the Swiss technology company, also sells Google TVs.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Monday, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Sony's executive deputy president and head of Sony's television business, said sales of the Google TVs were "in line with expectations," though he declined to give specific numbers.
He said sales were likely to pick up when more services were available from Google for televisions, including Android Market, from which users will be able to download applications onto their sets in early 2011.
Mr. Yoshioka agreed that initial reviews of the television were mixed. "Some reviews have been good, some have been bad," he said. "It might take a little longer for users to really start having fun" with Google TVs, he said.
As for Sony's TV business over all, Mr. Yoshioka said that the company would struggle to make the division profitable this year and that Sony would fall short of its goal to sell 25 million sets in the fiscal year ending in March.
Sales of Sony's 3-D TVs, introduced in June, started slowly, though sales have picked up in November and December, Mr. Yoshioka said. The lack of content to view in 3-D -- as well as misconceptions among users that 3-D televisions can't show conventional 2-D images -- seems to be hurting sales, he said.
First Published December 20, 2010 11:50 pm
