Sony to hike Notebook prices if rupee fall continues

Consumer electronics major Sony, which raised prices of laptops and notebooks early this year, on Friday said it would further hike prices after September if the rupee still continued to slump against the dollar.

"We adjusted prices of our laptops and notebooks by 10 to 15% from January to March. We will try to hold back prices at least up to September this year," Sony India I-T and mobile business head Sachin Thapar told reporters in Kolkata.

Thapar cautioned that the next price hike would impact across all models.

"Price hike would be our last option. But if the rupee depreciates further to an unprecedented level, then we would have to increase prices of every laptop and notebook model," Thapar said.

A combination of external and internal factors has seen the rupee lose much ground against the US dollar.

Thapar was in the city to launch a new range of Sony's Vaio notebooks.

He said the company was eyeing a 33% jump in its Notebook sales to ₹20 billion (₹2,000 crore) in the current financial year, up from ₹15 billion (₹1500 crore) last fiscal.

Sony India sold 500,000 Vaio Notebooks last year, and targets to sell 650,000 units this financial year.

The company expects the demand for Notebooks in India to grow by 20% in the next three years.

Thapar also said that the number of company flagship stores would be increased during this fiscal.

"We now have 35 flagship stores across the country, and are planning to raise the number of stores to 50 by the end of 2012-13. We will also increase our distribution outlets to 4,500 from the current 4,000," Thapar said.