Sony Latin America expects sales of its VAIO line of laptops to reach 1mn units in 2010, compared to the 500,000 units expected to be sold this year, the company’s Latin American VP Pedro Lafarga told BNamericas. According to Lafarga, the Latin American laptop market is doubling in size overall each year. The executive believes Sony will experience the highest growth in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Argentina.
“We are not aiming for a specific market share – we just aim to have recognition as a leading brand in technology, user experience and entertainment” with the goal of becoming a competitive market player, he said.
One of the new strategies to reach the expected growth is a new business model called VAIO by You, through which the company offers clients the possibility to customize the laptop according to their own needs. This model allows the client to select basic features such as the color and texture of the case, hard drive and RAM memory, battery capacity, connectivity features, and even print the owner’s name on the case. The laptop is then sent to the client within three weeks of the purchase order submission.
“We are adopting this new business model as a way to better meet the needs of the users. We see there is a demand from the consumers globally and in the region to personalize their equipment,” Lafarga said. “Since we are just launching this service, the relevance of this business model will be small at the beginning. But VAIO by You will represent 10-15% of all sales in the next 2-3 years.”
According to IDC, Latin American PC vendors are expected to sell some 25mn PCs this year, a 21% increase over PCs sold in 2007. Of that total 8mn will represent laptops, 60% above last year.
Story courtesy of Business News Americas.
