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Sony Profits Low, Halts CRT Production

Posted by Zonk on from the pitch-the-baby-the-bathwater-and-the-tub dept.

mtndue1 writes "Forbes is reporting that with lower than expected profits, Sony is halting the production of CRT's for televisions at many of its plants. The restructuring move is meant to catch the company up with other manufacturers who moved to LCD displays more quickly." From the article: " In the second quarter to September, net profit dropped 46.5 pct to 28.5 bln yen, pressured by 32.3 bln yen in restructuring expenses to write down the impaired value of its cathode-ray tube (CRT) plants. Under the plant closure program, Sony will shut down some of its CRT television assembly factories by March 2008 in order to shift its focus to the flat-screen TV business ... In a bid to revive its game division, Sony plans to release its next-generation stand-alone PlayStation 3 game console in the spring. To speed up development of PlayStation 3, Sony plans to devote 410 bln yen to capital investment in the year to March, up from 356.8 bln yen a year earlier."

3 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Too Bad; LCDs are Overpriced by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's too bad that Sony is phasing out it's CRT production. Granted, flat-screens have much better resolution, a smaller footprint and are lighther, but they're still extremely expensive. A 32" Sony Trinitron is going for around $400, while a 32" Sony LCD Wega flat panel is more than $2,000 (the cheapest 32" LCD flat screen I could find goes for $1,300). I just don't understand why anyone would buy one flat screen when they could get four or five CRTs for the same price.

    1. Re:Too Bad; LCDs are Overpriced by b1t+r0t · · Score: 4, Informative
      Except that you're comparing apples and oranges. A 32" Wega CRT is about $600-$700, but the HD-ready Wega is about $1000, and was around $1500 two years ago. Oh, and a minor point is that their LCD line seems to be called Bravia, not Wega.

      Mmmm... and that LCD has a PC input, too. I know for a fact that their CRT Wega line isn't designed for PC scan rates on the DVI input. You can get 640x480 to work, but there's overscan, and even if you get your video card to generate ATSC scan rates, anything higher than 480p forces the 4:3 CRT into widescreen mode.

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  2. Hard choice by boa13 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It must have been a hard choice for mtndue1, torn between hyping up his scoop so that he would have a chance to be published on Slashdot and not telling outright lies. So he took both approaches:

    Sony is halting the production of CRT's for televisions at many of its plants

    Sony will shut down some of its CRT television assembly factories by March 2008 (emphasis mine)

    No, I didn't read the fine article, but I did laugh out loud.