Sony 2001 Annual Report Download - page 19

Sony Corporation Annual Report 2001
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Directions and Plans in FY 2001
•progress on the integration of the manufacturing system, reduction in the number
of manufacturing facilities from 64 to 60 over one year
•during this fiscal year,
•camcorder worldwide shipments: 5.5 million (+17% YoY)
•digital still camera worldwide shipments: 2.6 million (+86% YoY)
•PC VAIO worldwide shipments: 2.5 million (+79% YoY)
Topics in FY2000
•progress towards adapting electronic prod-
ucts for networks, and accelerate the inte-
gration of electronic products and network
services
•plans to move forward with mass production
facilities in Kumamoto for CCDs and LCDs,
for which demand is expected to expand, and
to start operation in FY 2001
•Sony Finance International, Inc. (SFI):
•“e-SCOTT”, a credit card transaction and authorization platform for
e-commerce has been adopted by 50 sites (including e-shopping malls)
•the number of transactions handled by “e-SCOTT” in December 2000 was
2.74 million
•the cumulative number of visitors to the Metreon location-based enter-
tainment complex in San Francisco (open since May 1999) passed 10 million
•Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd.:
•new policies sold in FY00: ¥4,368.1 billion (+17% YoY)
•rated AA- IFS (Insurer Financial Strength) by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s
•Sony Assurance Inc.:
•net insurance premiums as of March 31, 2001: ¥7.5 billion (up from ¥1.3
billion a year ago)
•film library of nearly 4,000 titles
•international box office receipts in 2000: more than $1 billion
•largest independent supplier of television programming in North America:
34 programs
•number of channels in the international television division: 37
•over 360,000 subscribers to
EverQuest , an online game from Sony Online
Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a subsidiary of SPE
•share of new release album sales in 2000 in the U.S.: 15.4%, #3 in the industry
(SoundScan est.)
•share of new release sales in 2000 in Japan: 18.7%, #1 in the industry
(ORICON est.)
•number of awards at the 43rd Grammy awards in 2000: 18
•Sony Classical label wins Academy Award® for the 4th consecutive year
•“PlayStation 2” cumulative production shipments:
•hardware: 10.61 million (JPN 4.75 mil, U.S. 3.01 mil, EUR 2.85 mil)
•software: 38.30 million
•“PlayStation” cumulative production shipments:
•hardware: 82.23 million, software: 765 million
•SFI plans to add industry-first functions in
Japan that improve the precision of personal
identification through collation of a wide
range of customer information, such as date
of birth, as an additional service for “Direct
e-SCOTT” (launched December 2000), a
platform that enables faster and larger-
capacity data transmission than “e-SCOTT”
•plans to start Screenblast, a suite of digital
tools which helps PC users create entertain-
ment content and share it electronically
•SOE aggressively working on the online
game version of
Star Wars , scheduled to
launch during 2002
•plans to offer Duet, a music distribution
service that respects copyrights, in conjunc-
tion with Universal Music Group of the U.S.
on the Yahoo! Inc. site
•working towards strong promotion of A&R
and previous artists as well, maintaining a
high position in the industry
•plans to start PS2 network services in Japan,
the U.S., and Europe
•aiming to mass produce PS2 hardware, in
response to vigorous demand, and expand
the penetration of this format
•working to continuously strengthen and
improve the consulting capability of the
“Lifeplanner” at Sony Life
•pursuing synergies between Sony Life and
Sony Assurance, such as Sony Life selling
Sony Assurance products