THE worldwide financial crisis has not affected sales of Sony, the company’s president for the Philippines said yesterday.

Sony Philippines president and managing director Toshiya Kagita told reporters yesterday that sales of the company’s products were good. He also said the company had no plans of laying off workers amid widespread reports of industry job losses.

The company’s personal computer product line, VAIO, reported a sales increase that was higher than the general product market’s growth, he said.

Kagita was in Cebu yesterday to open Sony Expo 2008 at the Cebu Trade Hall in SM City Cebu. The Cebu leg of the Sony Expo 2008 is the start of a series of 21 exhibits that will run all over the country until Jan. 18, 2009.

Kagita said the event, which will run in Cebu until tomorrow, will showcase the company’s products with cutting edge technology like noise canceling in headphones, portable music players and even in notebook computers. The noise canceling technology eliminates up to 99 percent of ambient noise.

DNA

Takasi Kozu, Sony Philippines vice president for marketing, said tackling new things that nobody else can do is Sony’s “spirit” and “DNA.”

Kozu said Sony revolutionized music and made it portable with its introduction of the first Walkman decades ago. He said the company was also the first to release a compact disc player.

Kozu said that in the digital era, it is harder to differentiate products. Sony is able to differentiate, he said, through its “world breakthroughs” in technology.

Kozu said that among the cutting edge technologies on exhibit in the Sony Expo 2008 is the “world’s smallest, lightest and slimmest” 1920 x 10801 full HD camcorder, the HDR-TG1.

Also on exhibit is the world’s first 240Hz LCD TV, which renders video on 240 frames per second “to improve the clarity of fast-moving objects on screen.” (MTL)

For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here.(November 15, 2008 issue)Write letter to the editor.Click here.