Sony To Drop Out of Desktop Display Market

First the company was slammed with the public relations nightmare resulting from Dell's recall on Monday of 4.1 million Sony notebook computer batteries. Now, adding more fuel to the fire, sources say that Sony is also dropping out of the desktop monitor market in the face of stiff price competition. Sony officials would not comment, but IT resellers say the vendor already started notifying them about its exit from the market.

"Rather than lowering their standards, they're moving out of the business," says Michael Stavnshoj, monitor category manager for Zones, a reseller of IT products, including Sony displays.

Sony told the reseller last week that it would stop offering desktop monitors, but would continue to sell the large-screen LCD and plasma displays used as digital signage in such industries as transportation and retail.

Display experts say the desktop monitor landscape has become extremely price competitive.

"Sony was a technology leader historically in the CRT market, where they were extremely well-respected for their development of the Trinitron technology. With the transition over to LCD monitors, they still have brand-name recognition, which still carries a lot of clout, but the market is cost-competitive and commoditized. There's still some opportunity for high-end products, but even there competition is intense," says Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research for iSuppli, in El Segundo, Calif.

"With the LCD monitor, it's different from CRT in that a huge proportion of the value is the panel that goes into the product to start with. While the integrator adds value and there is still room for differentiation, there's not as much room for differentiation as there was in the CRT monitor market."