Sony is finally carrying its Vaio laptops in the Philippines, launching new models including one that plays Blu-ray DVD.
Toshiya Kasita, managing director for Sony Philippines, is convinced that the market for PCs in the Philippines is growing.
"The PC has expanded its user base from professionals to family use," Kasita said in an interview during the Vaio launch.
But more important, he said launching the Vaio fits into Sony's consumer market strategy.
Like Apple, Sony is treating the PC as the central component that links together consumer devices like digital cameras, mp3 players and even connects to its high-definition TV sets.
"The Vaio is important to our Sony Solutions strategy," said Kasita. "Also, we have more than 20 Sony Square stores dedicated to it so it's time we add the Vaio."
Previously, Vaio laptops were sold as parallel imports or in the gray market, which means the local Sony office will now officially support product warranty.
The Vaio TZ Series and SZ Series notebooks are priced from P100, 000 to P150, 000.
The Vaio FZ, which supports full 1080 high-definition TV and can do Blu-ray recording and playback, is priced at almost P200,000. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can store as much as 25 gigabytes of data, more than five times the capacity of regular single-layer DVDs.
