Sony Australia who last night launched their 3D TV offering in time for the FIFA World Cup is refusing to say whether they have stock problems or how much 3D TV stock they have in Australia. They have also refused to answers questions about why they mislead journalists about the launch date of their 3D TV offering.
For several weeks we have exclusively tipped that Sony Australia planned to launch their 3D TV in June to coincide with the FIFA World Cup while Sony Australia was insisting that the launch date was July.
At a recent Sony press conference last night Sony came clean, admitting that 3D Bravia TV’s will be in stores in time for the World Cup kick off next week.
Sony Australia MD Carl Rose who has been accused by his competitors of deliberately misleading journalists in an effort to Sony’s launch date from competitors”.
Sony executives in Australia confirmed last night that they will only have “limited stock” of their 3D Bravia TV’s.
A senior executive at a major competitor to Sony said “They have deliberately lied in an effort to mislead their competitors. Sony is not stupid, they are tipping hundreds of millions of dollars into the World Cup and to not have stock at a retail level did not make sense”.
Last month a senior Sony Australia executive told ChannelNews that Sony always planned to launch a 3D TV offering around the World Cup.
In Australia Samsung has been the sole supplier of 3D TV’s for the past two months, this allowed them to take advantage of Live 3D sporting broadcasts by Foxtel and the Nine Network who are broadcasting the State Of Origin NRL games in 3D.
This week LG began to sell its 3D range in Australia, Panasonic are expected to follow later this month with a new high end plasma model.
Now questions are being raised as to how much stock Sony actually has with some retailers telling ChannelNews that limited stock of Sony Bravia 3D TV’s will be used on the show floor to take orders which will be delivered after the FIFA World Cup which is being heavily sponsored by Sony.
According to the Korean Times Sony have serious 3D TV supply issues due in part to the Company relying on Samsung and Sharp to manufacture their Bravia 3D TV’s they also point out that globally Samsung has captured 90% of the 3D TV market having sold over 270,000 3D TV’s during the past six weeks.
A Sony Executive said recently “It’s true that Sony is experiencing difficulties in acquiring advanced panels and LED-related components for 3D televisions and we could have problems with 3D TV stock”.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the lack of TV components may dent Sony’s aggressiveness in promoting its 3D TVs around the World Cup in South Africa.
