Sony to Raise Output of PSP Handheld Game Player (Update1)
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. will raise monthly production of its PlayStation Portable game player to 1 million units because of rising popularity of the handheld console, said Chief Operating Officer Ken Kutaragi.
Sony, the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker, has shipped 800,000 units of the PSP in Japan since its Dec. 12 debut, Kutaragi said at a speech in Tokyo. He didn't say what the Tokyo-based company's current monthly output is. Sony on Jan. 5 said it had shipped 510,000 units as of Dec. 31.
The device is Sony's first launch into portable game devices, a market that has been dominated by Nintendo Co.'s Gameboy. It can play video and music, as well as games, and is part Sony's push to raise the profit margin of its electronics unit to 10 percent by 2006.
The company may add a mobile phone function to the player in the ``near future,'' Kutaragi said.
Sony plans to sell the PSP in Europe and the U.S. by March 31.
Sony shares fell 0.8 percent to 3,960 yen as of 1:30 p.m. in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Daisuke Takato in Tokyo at dtakato@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Iain Wilson at iwilson2@bloomberg.net
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. will raise monthly production of its PlayStation Portable game player to 1 million units because of rising popularity of the handheld console, said Chief Operating Officer Ken Kutaragi.
Sony, the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker, has shipped 800,000 units of the PSP in Japan since its Dec. 12 debut, Kutaragi said at a speech in Tokyo. He didn't say what the Tokyo-based company's current monthly output is. Sony on Jan. 5 said it had shipped 510,000 units as of Dec. 31.
The device is Sony's first launch into portable game devices, a market that has been dominated by Nintendo Co.'s Gameboy. It can play video and music, as well as games, and is part Sony's push to raise the profit margin of its electronics unit to 10 percent by 2006.
The company may add a mobile phone function to the player in the ``near future,'' Kutaragi said.
Sony plans to sell the PSP in Europe and the U.S. by March 31.
Sony shares fell 0.8 percent to 3,960 yen as of 1:30 p.m. in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Daisuke Takato in Tokyo at dtakato@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Iain Wilson at iwilson2@bloomberg.net
